Ice and Fire
by Redhead and proud
Summary: Natasha and Clint, now romantically involved, return to the Avengers Tower after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D to train Phoenix, a girl with powerful abilities, who struggles to face the horrors of her past. But when a dangerous threat emerges, The Avengers must ally with their old enemy Loki to stop them. Loyalties and beliefs are put to test in the ultimate battle of Ice and Fire.
1. The Arrival

**A/N: Guess who's back, back, back, back again. Haha it's me, returning with the anticipated sequel to my Avengers story Love and Fire. It's been almost a year since the first story was uploaded and wow, it's definitely been longer than I thought it was, I'm really sorry for the delay, I had trouble with the planning for this, it's been a bit of a hectic year for me, but here it is, finally. Ice and Fire picks up after the events of Captain America the Winter Soldier, and focuses a lot more of Natasha and Clint's relationship as well as Phoenix who you get to see a different side of in this sequel. I'm sure no one bothered to read this anyway but oh well, on with the story. Don't forget to read, review and enjoy.**

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><p>A hum from her right called to Natasha's attention and she turned to see a black vehicle coming towards her down the airport runway. The car pulled up beside her and the door opened, Clint stepping out in front of Natasha. The minute their eyes met, Natasha ran into his arms and he embraced her tightly.<p>

"Natasha," he breathed her name in relief as he placed a gentle hand on the back of her head and held her close. "I'm so sorry I should've been there."

The news of what had happened travelled quickly to Agent Barton who was far away on the other side of the world at the time. HYDRA inside of SHIELD, all of their information being leaked and Fury supposedly dying, Natasha and Steve's adventure was big news that almost drove Clint into a full scale panic.

"I think I managed it quite alright by myself thank you very much," she chuckled half-heartedly. He kissed her forehead and then released her, but she held onto him, tugging at the corners of his jacket. "It's good to see you," she whispered to him.

"Good doesn't even begin to cut it," Clint sighed and smirked a little as he twirled a strand of her hair.

"You know Fury approached me with something interesting while you were gone," she looked up at him, biting her bottom lip to hold back a devious smile as Clint's eyebrows raised in suspicion. "As it turns out, relationships among SHIELD agents is not exactly forbidden, but seen as unadvisable."

Clint stopped for a minute as he processed the information and then scoffed. "In case you hadn't noticed SHIELD has completely lost its footing Natasha so the rules don't exactly matter anymore," then a pause, before he asked. "Wait a minute why would Fury approach you out of the blue and tell you that?"

"He didn't say, but I have a vague idea of why," she laughed a little at his reaction as his eyes widened.

He seemed to ponder on what Natasha said for a moment before smirking. "Well that means we don't have to hide ourselves in public anymore," Clint leaned forward and tried to kiss Natasha but she put a finger against his lips, stopping him before he could make contact.

"I thought we were being careful about public displays of affection," she teased him as she slowly traced her finger from his lips down to his chest.

"I don't care."

Clint had enough of Natasha's teasing and eliminated all space between them as he pulled Natasha closer, pressing her body into his. The kiss was long and desperate, almost hungry. He traced his fingers down her back and Natasha found herself playfully raking her hands through his hair. Regretfully though, she pushed him off as she remembered where they were, and why they were there.

"The plane will be landing any minute now," she reminded him. "I highly doubt that the first thing they'll want to see is us, sprawled across the runway on top of each other, making out."

"You know that's sounds like a pretty good idea," Clint raised his eyebrows suggestively, which earned him a hit across the shoulder from Natasha. "Ow!" he rubbed his shoulder. "You're gonna pay for that later."

"Clint this is serious," she scolded him in an oddly soft tone, before going back to watching the sky, which she had been doing before he arrived, searching for any sign of the plane. Clint could just tell that Natasha was anxious from the way she kept folding and unfolding her arms.

"Alright I got the message," he let the matter and looked to the east with a hand in front of his face to cast a shadow for him to see past the bright glare of the sun. "When's the plane supposed to get here anyway?"

"10," Natasha replied checking her watch. "And it's 9:58."

She also kept looking to where the plane was expected to appear and for some odd reason it looked like she was counting. Clint sighed and nudged Natasha gently. "You don't have to be worried."

"I haven't seen her for four months Clint," Natasha's voice was soft, as if what she was talking about was some kind of deep official secret. "I don't know if she'll want to see me, I don't know what kind of training she went through and most importantly I have no idea how much she's changed, or if she's even changed at all."

Clint wasn't going to lie, Natasha was completely right. "Phoenix trusts you Natasha, I'm sure no matter how much she has or hasn't changed she'll remember you as the first person who every showed her real kindness."

Natasha gave him a funny look. "That was an oddly poetic sentence for you, congratulations," she remarked. "And I didn't show Phoenix kindness, I showed her the truth."

Soon the sound of a droning buzz reached their ears and the small aircraft in the distance made its way into Natasha's eye line when she saw the speck making its descent. They stepped back as the plane came down onto the runway and came to a stop almost directly in front of the two assassins. Natasha held her breath as they waited for a minute until the door opened and out walked Phoenix herself.

Natasha honestly had no idea what she was expecting.

There was no denying it, Phoenix did look different. When they had first met, Phoenix was nothing but skin and bones, so thin that she stuck out at awkward angles whenever she walked. Her skin was a pasty colour, her cheeks were sunken and hollow and the dark crescents under her eyes had made her look physically ill.

Now you could not see sharp ribs protruding through her chest, her form was stronger. Her skin was still pale but health could be seen in her cheeks, nearly making it possible to overlook the fact that she still had dark lines under her eyes. Her trademark orange hair was contained in a tight bun that sat atop her head, exposing her face and allowing Natasha to see her clearly.

Her dark blue eyes met Natasha's green ones and she began her descent down the stairs. She approached Natasha and Clint at a calm and relaxed pace and when she reached them she looked them both up and down in confusion. Natasha's breath caught for just a mere second at the possibility that Phoenix may have forgotten them.

"Agent Romanoff," at the sound of Phoenix saying her own name Natasha stepped forward and gently hugged her. Phoenix flinched at the display of affection, even if it was an everyday gesture. Natasha released her quickly and smiled at her. Clearly she wasn't used to friendly physical contact, even though the hug only lasted briefly.

Clint decided not to risk it and instead of hugging Phoenix, politely shook her hand. "I didn't think we'd be seeing you so soon," Clint commented as Phoenix was handed her bag by someone working on the airfield.

Apparently in the few months she had been away Phoenix had learned conversational skills, because her time at Stark Tower before leaving was spent mostly in silence and the occasional mumbled sentence. Now that she was talking like an ordinary person Natasha had hope.

"Honestly neither did I," Phoenix swung her bag over her shoulder. "Now can either of you tell me why I received an encrypted message to return here immediately? Whoever sent the message was obviously in distress. I obviously missed some kind of disaster didn't I?"

Natasha and Clint both paused, unsure of what to say. It was a difficult situation to put into simple words. Besides, it wasn't a good place to discuss top secret matters, so Natasha and Clint began leading her towards the car.

"It's a long story," Natasha told her, which sparked curiosity behind Phoenix's confused expression. "Don't worry about that now, tell me about you. How are you, was your training a success?"

Phoenix walked beside them as they moved towards the car. "I'm fine," Phoenix gave a two-worded answer that Natasha wasn't happy about. She was hoping to know if Phoenix had developed a coping strategy to deal with her traumatic past, but she had no intention of pushing her so she let the matter drop.

"The training proved effective," Phoenix continued. "I can't reveal the location of course, but we spent a lot of time using the local terrain. There was about 15 or so other people that I was with, as well as a few trainers. Most of them were Marines doing extra combat and espionage training. We got along well enough."

"Well we have someone who will want to hear that themselves," Clint twirled the car key around his finger. "We're taking to someone who's going to ask you a few questions. I'm pretty sure it's just regulation, nothing for you to worry about too much."

"I already wrote a report," Phoenix swung her duffle back in front of her and zipped it open, pulling out a beige coloured folder and handing it to Clint so she could toss her bag into the boot of the car. "It's just a general summary and not for your eyes." She took it back off him as he was about to open it.

Natasha smirked at Clint who rolled his eyes as they all got into the car. Clint was elected the driver so Natasha could have a conversation with Phoenix. So far she hadn't picked up on anything odd in Phoenix's personality, which was good news. She most likely had not overcome her recent trauma, but so far seemed to be coping.

"So what's going on?" Phoenix was quick to ask the question the minute the car started.

Where were they supposed to begin, how were they supposed to put it into words? Telling Phoenix about Hydra was too much information for her to process, but she needed to know about SHIELD, and the fact that the once great organisation was in ruins.

"I can't reveal too much Phoenix, you don't have high enough clearance to know the full details," lying was second nature to Natasha, Clint knew that giving her an accusing look would not induce a feeling of guilt on the super spy, but that didn't stop him from looking at her, unamused, out of the corner of his eye.

"I understand," Phoenix believed the lie, no problem. She was used to following orders and obeying without question, if she was told she wasn't allowed to know then she accepted it. She was probably the only teenage girl in the world that didn't talk back.

"There was a secret organisation hiding inside of SHIELD for many years," Natasha began her explanation, keeping a close monitor over her speech so she did not say more than she intended to. "Recently they have revealed themselves and attacked SHIELD from the inside, so right now SHIELD is stuck in the middle of a civil war and things are very bad. There's more to it than that, but that's all you need to know for now. We owe no affiliation to SHIELD anymore."

Phoenix stared at Natasha, her face emotionless for a brief second until her lips opened to form a small O shape and she made a funny noise of surprise, sounding slightly like a supressed and near silent gasp. She was then silent for a second more until she sat back in her seat and simply said, "Oh shit."

Clint, at that point, actually had the nerve to chuckle at Phoenix's new vocabulary. Natasha shot him a look and he stifled his laughter by pressing his lips together, but a tight smile was still plastered across his face. After he composed himself, Clint glanced in the rear-view mirror. "I guess you learnt some new sentences off the Marines you trained with huh?"

Phoenix shrugged. "That's nowhere near close to the most descriptive expression those soldiers used."

"Phoenix you're so different," Natasha couldn't help herself from saying what was on her mind as she watched the way Phoenix behaved in marvel. Phoenix narrowed her eyes a little in confusion at Natasha's odd statement, but it was true, Phoenix had definitely changed.

Phoenix's backstory was not a happy one. From what Natasha knew, at some point Phoenix had been experimented on at a young age. Doctor Blake was, in every sense of the term, a mad scientist, he had an obsession with the super soldier serum used on Captain America and was one of the many people that attempted to recreate it. He didn't quite replicate it, but he came close, perfected it in a way. He succeeded with Phoenix, gave her heightened abilities like super strength and agility, similar to Steve Rogers himself, but she gained extra abilities as well.

Phoenix had a rather unique skill. She could create and manipulate fire, bending it to her own uses. She had a remarkable control over her ability, in fact she was only stable in the physical sense, emotionally she was well off from healthy. Doctor Blake hadn't just given his serum to Phoenix, there were five other children as well, however Phoenix had been the one that he kept to himself.

From what Natasha could tell, Phoenix had been trained and brainwashed to follow the orders of Doctor Blake. Several times Natasha had interrogated Phoenix and she had spoken like he was a god. She had called him her 'Master'. When Phoenix had learnt the truth, she had used her abilities to burn Doctor Blake alive in a mad rage that Natasha had personally witnessed.

Natasha didn't find herself scared often, but watching what Phoenix had done, sparked a small amount of fear inside of her. Doctor Blake had tried to create a super soldier, but he had come closer to creating a psychopath.

"I guess I am a little bit different," Phoenix didn't look directly at Natasha when she spoke, instead she stared at an empty space in front of her, like she was fading away, even her voice was slowly becoming more monotone as she spoke. "I suppose it's better really."

Phoenix flinched as Natasha reached into the back seat and grabbed Phoenix's hands gently. "Phoenix you are fine," she reassured her as Phoenix slowly returned to normality and looked Natasha in the eye. Clint kept his eyes on the road, but glanced in the backseat once or twice to confirm that all was well.

Phoenix finally snapped back to normality and pulled her hands from Natasha's grip. "Where exactly are we going?" the subject change was not very subtle, and Natasha could see that Phoenix was in distress about venturing too far into her own mind. At least that answered a few of Natasha's questions.

"Stark Tower," Clint had been silent for a while now, but spoke up to answer Phoenix's questions. "Only it's not called Stark Tower anymore. Tony has finished refurbishing it and he has officially renamed it The Avengers Tower."

"You'll be completing the rest of your training there with us," Natasha clarified. "Tony and Bruce are waiting over there for us now, but first we're taking you to someone who is going to ask you a couple of routine questions. You don't know her, but you can trust her."

Maria Hill waited in the darkened office room, slowly tapping her nails against the clean glass table. She had 'borrowed' a small official looking meeting room on the tenth floor of a law firm; luckily she had someone who owed her a favour. Besides she needed seclusion for this interrogation.

She had not met the girl in person, but she had been informed. She did not in any way shape or form want to be in the room conducting the interrogation, but she worked for Tony now, and she was one of the only people outside of The Avengers that was allowed to know of the girls existence.

The only possible candidate he had said. Maria scoffed to herself out loud, SHIELD was practically gone and yet somehow she was still working for them. She silently cursed her own luck.

The possible risks of what could go wrong took up a list that spread over five pages, the list of things she was to avoid saying to the girl was three pages long. She had never come across such strict rules for an interrogation before. He had called it a questioning, but Maria knew what he wanted her to ask the girl, it was an interrogation no doubt about it.

Soon the door opened, and Natasha and Clint entered. Maria nearly smirked, she wasn't supposed to know, but Fury had told her before the fall of SHIELD that the two spies were romantically involved. Reluctantly she had handed Director Fury 10 dollars as he won their long running bet since Clint had first brought Natasha home. Kind of like a little kid finding a stray puppy and begging his parents to let them keep it.

Behind Barton and Romanoff came the girl, Phoenix.

Maria tensed as she entered the room, she did not trust her, not one bit. She had seen what this teenager could do, and she did not like it. She could only imagine what the girl would be like when she matures. It could be catastrophic, but most were adamant that she would not be a danger.

Maria rose, and strode across the room towards Phoenix, she wanted to get this over and done with. "Maria Hill," she introduced herself as she nodded at Phoenix, she would've shaken her hand, but she hadn't quite earned trust for that yet.

"Phoenix," the girl spoke in what was a very basic accent as she introduced herself, nothing in her voice indicated anything out of the ordinary. Phoenix took a seat at the table as Maria sat down across from her. "I understand you wanted to ask me some questions ma'am. I wrote a report if that helps."

Maria was slightly confused as Phoenix produced a beige coloured folder and slid it across the table to Maria's outstretched hand. She began reading it, her face stoic as her eyes scanned over it quickly. Once she finished she placed it on the table beside her right elbow.

"Surprisingly good for someone of your age, but then again from what I've heard of you I expected nothing less," Maria finally spoke and made a hand motion in Natasha and Clint's direction, signalling for them to leave the room.

Natasha hesitated, looking from Phoenix to Maria and then grudgingly exited, but not before pausing again to glance at Phoenix one last time in concern. Maria didn't like Natasha's behaviour, she knew the woman to be a super spy, and Natasha acting maternal was just weird.

Maria opened a file in front of her and held a pen in her right hand to record Phoenix's answers. "I'm going to ask you some questions Phoenix and you must answer them truthfully and to the best of your ability. Some questions will be directly related to you, and others will be seemingly random and unrelated. If you find you can't answer a question we will move on." Phoenix nodded in acknowledgment. "To start off with, what is your full name?"

"Phoenix," the girl answered simply.

"Is that the only name you have?"

"Yes ma'am, I've only ever been called Phoenix, nothing else."

"Please list your immediate family."

"I have no family."

"How old are you?"

"15."

"How did you escape the secluded island during your encounter with Agents Barton and Romanoff?"

Now they had moved onto the questions related to Phoenix and her time with Doctor Blake. This was the part where Phoenix would be most vulnerable. Maria watched her carefully as she processed the question.

"I managed to get past Agents Barton and Romanoff, jumped off the edge of the island, and swam into a small area where a speedboat was waiting that could get me to the mainland," Phoenix answered, she seemed to think on her answer for a second, as if she wasn't happy with her own answer.

"Why did you feel the need to kill two SHIELD agents as you made your escape?"

"They were in my way."

What really got to Maria about that answer was that Phoenix didn't even hesitate. She sucked in a breath and went onto ask the next question. "How did you convince the four other children; Joshua Smith, Samuel Lidsdale, Isabella Mason and Mark Winters to follow you?"

"They're not children," Phoenix stated before answering the question. "When I approached them I told them that I knew of their abilities and I threatened them into following me. But for some it was more complicated than that."

"I assume you're referring to the incident at Navy Pier."

When Phoenix had tried to capture Mark Winters, several SHIELD agents were sent to intercept her and she killed most of them as well as a large amount of civilians. The press had originally been quick to reveal news coverage of the attack but SHIELD managed to cover it up, with a lot of difficulty. Maria remembered seeing it, and wondering how a child could've done all that.

"Yes. It was an unfortunate incident but I was instructed to gather them all using any means necessary."

"When did you receive these orders? Were they part of a plan that had already been set up?"

"Yes, the plans had been in place for years. There were other plans as well for different circumstances."

Maria paused before her next question. She had been warned that the mention of this person could possibly cause a high emotional reaction from the girl, she placed a hand on the gun in her lap as she sucked in a breath.

"Did Doctor Blake personally train you?"

Sure enough, at the mention of his name, the girl jumped in her seat like she had been slapped across her right cheek. Maria could see something in her eyes, almost like a memory flashed through her mind that brought on a flood of fear into her expression. Maria waited patiently, hand on the trigger of her weapon, the girl slowly came back to her senses and cleared her throat.

"I was educated at a high level from a young age, my physical training was conducted by people that My Ma..." She choked on her words, then found her composure and sat up straight, exhaling to calm herself. "People that Doctor Blake had found who were willing to work with me. Most of my training was conducted in laboratories, with computers and technology. He was however always present during all aspects of my training and behavioural programming."

"What sort of things did they do to you in behavioural programming?"

It was an unscripted question, but it seemed necessary for Maria to ask. She knew she had made a mistake when the girl went rigid and stared at a space in front of her, facial expression blank. Her mouth opened as she searched for words, but she closed it again.

"We can move on if you need."

"Cold," her voice was high pitched, and her words came out in a tight whisper, but loud enough to hear. "Cold and Hot and Smooth and Rough and Up and Down and Left and Right and Turn and Turn and Turn and Turn." She was chanting in what seemed like a sing-song voice as she stared into the distance and kept repeating the word turn.

"Phoenix!"

Maria's sharp tone was enough to snap the girl back to reality, she stop staring off into the distance and looked at Maria like she had been disgraced. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "We can continue with the questioning, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Maria asked hesitantly.

Phoenix gave a no worded answer and simply nodded in response.

She knew that the girl was most certainly not fine, and it would be against all better judgement to continue interrogating her. She also knew that the room they were seated in was not soundproof and that Agent Romanoff had most likely heard Maria call out loudly to Phoenix. The last thing she needed was Natasha bursting into the room. She gave it a few seconds before she continued.

"Heather James mentioned that all of the six children, including yourself, are connected through some kind of mental link. Is this true?"

Phoenix was at a loss for words, but not because of her fractured mental stability, but because she wasn't too sure about the question. "I've not really thought about it too much," she frowned, thinking about it carefully. "I guess so, but honestly I don't know."

"The other teenagers mentioned a safe house you stayed in whilst you were hiding out in New York," Maria continued, nothing that her behaviour was stabilising. It was time to go back to the questions related to the girl. "Could you give us the location of this place and any other locations where information might've been stored?"

Maria saw it happen in Phoenix's eyes before she even said anything. Phoenix made an odd choking sound in the back of her throat as she tried to answer the question and stop herself from answering it at the same time. "I-I-I, no, I," she formed strangled terrified sounds.

"It's ok take your time," Maria treaded carefully.

"I can't, I can't," Phoenix's eyes were wide as she focused on something to the right of Maria, like she had done before, but there was a significant amount more fear in her eyes. Maria Hill's hands found her gun in her lap as she went into alert as she saw that Phoenix was obviously falling into something from her past. "Don't hurt me!" she shrieked and fell off her chair, dragging herself backwards towards the corner of the room and sobbing.

The door to the room burst open as Natasha, obviously hearing Phoenix shriek, ran into the room. She went to run over to Phoenix but Maria stopped her. It sounded cruel, but she needed to be left to get over it by herself. Clint followed Natasha through the door and stood behind her, silently watching Phoenix.

Phoenix sat in the corner, rocking back and forth and begging some invisible person not to hurt her. She then began rambling while she sobbed about how sorry she was, that she would keep her mouth shut, that she wouldn't say anything. They all knew what was going on at that point, and suddenly things became a lot clearer for the former Agent Hill.

"Controlled torture," Maria remarked in a flat tone as she watched Phoenix.

Natasha didn't want to believe it, but Maria saying the words had confirmed it. "That bastard," she spat bitterly.

"I've never seen it before but I've heard of it," Clint's tone of voice nearly matched Natasha's, except he sounded more sorrowful then angry.

"It's a repetitive process," Natasha informed him while shaking her head angrily. "They force them to reveal secrets and then torture them for it until they reach a point when they can't reveal that information because it causes them to break down out of fear. To do it on someone so young makes it even worse."

Phoenix calmed down slightly as she had stopped her begging, and instead buried her face into her knees and muttered to herself as she pulled at her own hair. Natasha had enough of waiting and doing nothing, so she walked forward and pulled Phoenix's arms away from her gently to prevent her from ripping all the hair off her head. Phoenix shook her head and tried to pull her arms back but Natasha tightened her grip.

Maria spoke from her seat at the table where she had remained throughout the entire ordeal. "I would advise you to take her back to the Tower. I'm done with her for now."


	2. The Reunion

**A/N: Ok so chapter 2 is now up, and Phoenix returns to Avengers tower. I'm finding myself writing a lot less lately so I don't know how regularly this story will update, but I will try my best to update whenever I have a new chapter. I don't really have much else to say about this chapter other than please read, review and enjoy.**

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><p>"What did I do?"<p>

Phoenix had been silent up until that point. She finally broke out of her silence to ask her question, glancing into the mirror where she knew Natasha could see her. Her eyes were wide, and filled with concern; it was an expression Natasha had not seen Phoenix use before. For a moment she took in the sight of the young girl in the backseat.

Once Phoenix had stopped muttering after her interrogation Natasha managed to pull her to her feet and take her out to the car. Phoenix had barely even made any sound whatsoever as she walked with Natasha, her face blank the entire time. Maria had just watched them leave, stoic, but obviously making her own observations.

"You don't remember?" Natasha inquired. She checked Phoenix's expression again, the concern and worriment was still evident, but there was confusion as well. Natasha knew the answer before Phoenix did, and yet she asked anyway.

"No, I mean yes. I-I uh no," Phoenix shook her head. "I don't know, I can remember some things, like I'm getting a bad signal to my memory, there's too much static. Did I hurt anyone?"

"No you kind of just shrieked," Clint answered, his eyes glued to the road as his knuckles were nearing the point of white on the steering wheel of the car. His voice was flat, and he spoke through a tight jaw as he flared his nostrils a few times. Natasha could see that he wanted to say something more; eventually he succumbed to the temptation and tapped his hands on the wheel three times before speaking.

"Maria was out of line."

There, he had said it.

"Clint," Natasha started but he cut her off with a sharp hand gesture.

"She knew what kind of questions she was asking, and she knows how delicate Phoenix is," Clint gestured to Phoenix in the backseat as he talked about her. Natasha watched as the one hand he kept on the wheel was stable while he flapped the other arm of his around, talking with his hands as he always did whilst agitated. "She was trying to get a reaction out of her, and don't even try to convince me otherwise Nat."

Natasha clamped her mouth shut, Clint had a valid point, but tough interrogations were supposed to be something that they dealt with on a regular basis. They weren't supposed to have such strong emotional opinions on it, and they certainly weren't supposed to contradict the actions of a superior officer. Now they were questioning everything, and Natasha didn't like the idea of what might come next.

"Clint it's fine, it wasn't her," Phoenix leaned forward, shaking her head dismissively. "I was weak, I couldn't handle it. It was my fault."

"Don't say that!" Clint addressed her sharply, causing Phoenix to flinch and Natasha to look at him closely. He only ever became this over emotional when he was discussing something that impacted him greatly. Natasha could see it all over him, he cared about Phoenix, deeply, he only reserved such emotions for people of high importance to him. "None of this is your fault Phoenix, so don't even think about believing that bullshit for a second."

Bullshit. An interesting choice of words that sparked an eyebrow raise from Natasha. Clint pulling the bullshit card happened often, whenever he couldn't think of a better word to say, that's what he went with. Every time he would say it, it would amuse Natasha for some weird reason.

"Maria was just following orders Clint," Natasha reminded him once she deemed him calm enough to have a rational discussion.

"Can we please stop talking about it," Phoenix spoke softly and Natasha looked back at her, noting the desperate look in her eyes and recognising what she had just said as a request, not a question. The cracks from her earlier breakdown were beginning to appear much clearer, and if they drove her over the edge, she could lose it again.

Clint clearly picked up on this as well because he was the one to change the subject. "I think I should warn you in advance, with all the chaos focused around SHIELD the media is in an uproar, and we've taken strict measures to avoid the public getting a glimpse of you. Which means you won't be able to leave the tower very often," Clint informed her, trying his best to focus Phoenix's attention on something other than her delicate mental state.

It seemed to work, and Phoenix looked to the two adults in the front seat, rather surprised about what Clint had told her. "Why would the media care about me?" She asked.

"Well Natasha and I are technically supposed to be underground, and if they saw us escorting you into the Avengers tower they might think you were our daughter or something," Clint told her, earning an even more surprised look from Phoenix.

"Why on earth would they jump to such a conclusion?" Phoenix looked like she was questioning everything she knew about human behaviour. "Natasha is too young to have a 15 year old daughter, and I don't think I share any physical similarities with either of you."

"It's the hair," Clint shrugged and Natasha shot him a look, which he saw and looked at her in disbelief. "Come on Nat, you both have red hair, that's enough to convince anyone. It's practically your defining feature."

"I've been a spy for how long Barton?" Natasha demanded rhetorically. "I think I'm world renowned for more than just my hair. And besides, my hair is a much different shade of red to Phoenix. My hair is a dark red colour, Phoenix's hair is more of an orange colour."

"Don't have a go at me for it; it's the press that will jump to those conclusions not me. I'm just warning you to be careful ok," Clint said as he narrowly avoided an argument with Natasha, who practically always won.

Phoenix's statement from earlier when she mentioned her age to be 15 stuck on Natasha's mind. She turned to look at Phoenix. "When's your birthday?" She asked her.

"My date of birth is 04-07-1998," Phoenix replied automatically like she was speaking about a serial number. "The Fourth of July."

Natasha cocked an eyebrow. "You were born on Independence Day. Interesting."

Natasha could see Clint running the information through his head as he tapped absently on the steering wheel. "You know there can't be that many missing girls with that exact same date of birth, if we ran your details through the system we might be able to find your real parents."

"No," Phoenix said sternly.

"Don't you want to know who you really are?" Natasha questioned her in confusion. "You could find your real family again."

"No," Phoenix repeated herself. "I don't have family."

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><p>Clint drove around the back of the tower, quickly slipping into the underground car park before he could be detected by the paparazzi that always lurked around various spots of the building. They seemed to be everywhere, and there were more of them since Tony had renamed it the Avengers Tower.<p>

Phoenix knew the tower well enough, but she was thrown a little when she walked in because Tony had redecorated and refurbished yet again. She stayed close by Natasha's side as they walked through the grand foyer and to the main room where Tony would no doubt be waiting with a ridiculous and over-the-top 'Welcome Home' banner.

Tony had gotten lazy, Natasha and Clint noticed when a scanning device did not pop out to greet them like it had done the very first time they had ever entered the lift. Phoenix watched the numbers on the elevator, increasing as they made their journey upwards, with vague interest.

The doors to the elevator slid open and before they could step out there was a loud POP! that sent Phoenix jumping backwards in shock. Tony had managed to get his hands on several party poppers and had decided that setting one off was a good idea. "Surprise!" He grinned and set another one off.

Phoenix realised what had made the noise and did not freak out upon hearing Tony set off the second one. Natasha had called it right, Tony had set out a Welcome Home sign in honour of the occasion. Tony had at least put effort in, Natasha had to give him credit for that.

"Long time no see kid," Tony greeted her as Phoenix dropped her things beside the elevator as she exited it and stepped into the room. She was smiling at the sight of all those gathered in the room to welcome her home, despite her earlier breakdown Natasha was glad to see some recovery.

Bruce stood next to Tony and smiled at Phoenix politely. They exchanged a brief greeting before Phoenix was swept up by Pepper's embrace. In Pepper's arms, Phoenix flinched like she had received an electric shock and kept her arms close by her side as Pepper hugged at her. Two friendly hugs in one day seemed too much for Phoenix to comprehend. She muttered a hello to Pepper, before looking at her feet and stepping away awkwardly.

The eyes of Natasha and Phoenix both spotted someone across the room and Natasha cocked her head in surprise. "What are you doing here Steve?" Natasha asked him curiously. "I thought with the information I gave you, you'd be halfway around the world by now."

"I postponed my trip when I heard Phoenix was coming back," he answered with a glance in the teenagers' direction. "I figured it would be better not to start the search straight away, I still need more time to process the information properly."

"What search?" Phoenix asked curiously.

"I'm looking for an old friend," Steve answered before Natasha could tell her that it wasn't any of her concern. She didn't like telling Phoenix too much, The Winter Soldier was Hydra, and whatever happened she did not want Phoenix wrapped up with Hydra. That point she had made very clear to everyone before allowing Phoenix to return to the tower.

"And who's this?" Phoenix set her sights on the individual standing next to Steve and her discomfort was immediate. She stepped backwards, tensing her shoulders and tightening her facial expression. She stared at the African-American man standing next to Steve like he had just jumped through the window brandishing a weapon.

"Phoenix this is Sam Wilson," Natasha introduced him quickly so Phoenix didn't attack. "You can trust him."

At those words Phoenix relaxed as if on command and she directed her attention on Sam and began carefully inspecting his appearance. "Phoenix I guess?" Sam asked as he walked towards and held out his hand. She shook it respectfully and nodded in response. "Yeah Cap told me about you, I heard you can do this, freaky fire thing."

"It's more of a basic pyrokinetic ability," Phoenix seemed confused. "It's not freaky at all."

"Well you create fire out of nowhere, for some that might be a little freaky," Clint shrugged from his new position where he had perched himself atop the back of the couch.

Phoenix thought for a minute and then shrugged like he had a fair point, it was a casual gesture that a lot of teenagers tended to do. Natasha wondered for a minute where Phoenix had picked it up. "I don't really create the fire out of nowhere," she looked down at her feet and scuffed them a little. Was that shyness?

Natasha found Phoenix's new behaviour both interesting and alarming at the same time. Where was she getting this from?

"How do you do it then?" Bruce suddenly asked. "What do you create the fire from?"

"Atoms," Phoenix replied simply, she held out her hands in front of her, palms opened towards the ceiling. "To create fire all you need are enough atoms moving at a fast enough speed and they ignite. I can't see the atoms, but I can feel them. I just reach out and create the flame."

A fire ignited in her upturned palms. "Woah!" The sudden flame caught Sam off guard and he jumped backwards. Phoenix looked at him as if his surprise amused her. "That's definitely classified as a freaky fire thing," he said after a moment's pause.

"Once I have the fire, I can do whatever I want with it," the fire began twirling itself around her hands as she talked. It moved slowly, it actually looked quite enchanting when she wasn't trying to kill people with it. "It took me a while to master creation, manipulation however is easy."

"And it doesn't burn you?" Sam asked, walking forward to look at the fire closer. "That's, that's...that's some strange stuff right there."

"I don't know why but the fire doesn't hurt me," Phoenix shrugged as she focused closely on her fire. "I was told why once, but I can't quite remember. I think it was something about an immunity in my skin, or my bloodstream. The real danger for me is smoke inhalation."

The fire slowly faded from Phoenix's hands, she looked embarrassed now that every eye in the room was fixated on her. She was feeing out of place, Natasha could spot that easily, but the question was why did it matter to her? She hadn't expressed any emotions such as these before. It peaked Natasha's interest to breaking point.

Sam's initial shock over Phoenix's ability had worn off, and instead he looked impressed. "Well Cap I'd better get going," Sam looked to the elevator. "I gotta get started on what we discussed, so I'll be seeing you whenever you want to continue with what we were doing."

"It was good meeting you Sam" Phoenix nodded at him as he moved to exit the room.

"You to Phoenix," he waved at her as he walked towards the elevator. "And goodbye to the rest of you Avengers. Continue, you know, saving the world and stuff."

"Come on Sam I'll walk you down," Steve smiled at the goodbye words of his friend, and clapped a hand on Sam's shoulder as they moved towards the elevator.

Phoenix watched them go, head titled to the side as she scanned their movements. Natasha found herself doing the same thing, this fact was not a comforting thought to Natasha, because it was a possibility Phoenix's brain was hard wired permanently to scan and analyse every single person she ever met. It wasn't exactly a trait you expected to find in someone of her age.

"Hey Phoenix I forgot to give you something!" Tony's words caught the attention of Phoenix, who turned to look at him at the same minute he threw something in her direction. Phoenix caught it easily and carefully inspected the odd, lumpy, shaped item that had been wrapped by ludicrously red wrapping paper and tied with a piece of black ribbon.

"What is it?" Phoenix held the object far away from her face as if it were a radioactive substance.

"A little housewarming gift I got for you," Tony answered with a smirk. "What you've never gotten a present before?"

"No."

Tony sighed, obviously forgetting that Phoenix had no idea what a rhetorical question was. "Just open it kid."

Cautiously Phoenix pulled on one end of the ribbon like she expected it to pull apart easily, and when it did not she proceeded to pull the string off the wrapped gift without any more attempts to untie it. She did practically the same thing with the wrapping paper, and ripped the whole thing off in one swift tearing motion.

"Um," Phoenix stared at the object in her hand. "What is it supposed to be?"

"Something every child should have."

Phoenix looked at the teddy bear like it was an alien, and to her it probably was alien. It was a generic light brown colour, and from what Natasha could tell it was probably made with synthetic material to not only make it look cute, but also cuddly. To top off the childish look, it had a red bow tied around its neck.

"But what is it?" Phoenix poked the teddy bear in confusion.

"It's a stuffed toy Phoenix," Natasha answered flatly, with a blank stare at Tony, to hid her annoyance at the recent shenanigans of the billionaire. "Tony I distinctly remember telling you with all seriousness that any coddling of Phoenix would result in an activity of knife throwing that you will not enjoy."

"I am not coddling her, I'm giving her the base necessities of childhood," Tony responded hotly.

Phoenix was ignoring their confusion and had devoted all her concentration to figuring out what the teddy bear was. "How is this thing a toy, toys do things, this is just a fluffy ornament. Does it have a hidden purpose?" she held it up to Clint, her facial expression a mix of annoyance and confusion.

"Come here Phoenix I'll show you," Clint thought the whole situation hilarious, and was trying not to laugh as Phoenix handed him the bear and hopped up onto the back of the couch to sit beside Clint. He held out the bear in front of them. "Little kids have hyper imaginations and they sometimes pretend that these things are real. It's basically a companion, usually given to a kid by their parents. Kids name them, dress them up, have tea parties and even go on fake adventures with them. Stuffed toys are usually bears, but they can be other animals as well."

Phoenix thought on his words, and still did not understand. "That makes no sense, they are inanimate objects and are not actual living creatures. They can't drink tea."

Clint really did want to help her, but he couldn't find a way of simplifying what he had already told her into terms she would understand. Natasha nearly applauded his patience, but he was always extremely patient, especially with children. That and he was clearing showing he had a soft spot for the young girl, which Natasha frowned at. She had always thought that she would be the one with a weakness for Phoenix, but obviously not.

"Give it some time you'll figure it out," Clint told her as he plucked the bear from her hands and placed it on the couch behind them where it would not give her any more confusion. "Social norms dictate that when anyone gives you a gift, you accept it gladly and return their kindness with gratitude."

Phoenix gave him an odd look. "What?"

"You need to say thank you to Pepper and Tony for buying you a gift," Clint repeated himself in blunt terms so Phoenix would have a vague idea of what he was talking about.

Phoenix looked to Natasha, who nodded to her, indicating that it was necessary for her to do what Clint was asking her to do. Unsure of how to word her sentence, Phoenix looked at Tony and Pepper with her mouth slightly agape before speaking. "Uh, thank you I guess, for the, thing." Her words were like broken jigsaw puzzles that someone had tried to piece together hopelessly.

She didn't know how to say thank you. She didn't even know what thank you meant. So far Natasha had encountered three different versions of Phoenix. The version that blindly followed Doctor Blake like a mindless killing machine, and then the version that was left behind after she killed Doctor Blake, that was nothing more than a hollow shell who hid away in the confines of Stark Tower after her recruitment, and the version standing before Natasha now.

After finally learning the truth, and adjusting to life without the psychopath she called her Master, the real Phoenix had been revealed. A teenage girl, lost in her own confusion and stuck in a world she didn't understand. Helping her adjust to life might be nearly impossible for Natasha.

But she couldn't turn her back on this girl, especially not now after everything she went through to save her. Natasha also had Clint, whatever happened she could count on Clint to be there, always.

"So Phoenix," Natasha looked to her with a smirk gliding across her face. "Are you ready to begin your training?"

Phoenix smiled in return. "Let's do it."


	3. The Experience

**A/N: Yikes this one definitely took me a lot longer to upload than I would've liked, the next one should be up sooner, I just ran into a bit of trouble with life. So guys I can't help but notice this story hasn't got any reviews yet, I really love hearing feedback from you guys, positive or negative, I really don't mind I just really want to know what you guys think of the story. Anyway as always lovely readers, read, review and enjoy.**

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><p>Twice Natasha knocked on Phoenix's door with no answer. It was early in the morning, and although Phoenix wasn't supposed to meet her in the gym for another 30 minutes, but Natasha was eager to start early, she and Clint had a full day lined up for Phoenix.<p>

Phoenix still did not answer as Natasha rapped on her door for a third time. "JARVIS locate Phoenix," Natasha ordered.

"She is with Dr Banner in his quarters," the AI informed her immediately.

Why she was with Bruce was a mystery to Natasha, but she had every intention of finding out as she began making her way towards where Phoenix was. There was the possibility that Phoenix had injured herself somehow and needed medical attention from the doctor, but that didn't seem likely. If that had happened Natasha would've been notified, although there weren't many other plausible reasons as to why Phoenix was in his room.

As she came to his room Natasha was surprised to find it open, and when she looked into the room she saw both Phoenix and Dr Banner seated side by side on the carpet with their legs crossed. Natasha leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed and cocked a head just as Phoenix noticed her arrival.

"Meditation," Natasha stated. "I didn't think that was your thing."

Phoenix shrugged, looking up at Natasha in a sheepish manner as she made a breathy noise of uncertainty. "Bruce recommended that it might be good for me," she pulled herself to her feet and looked to Natasha cautiously. "I thought I wasn't supposed to start training today until 7."

"You're not, I was looking for you because I couldn't find you in your room," Natasha told her, noticing that Bruce still meditated, with no chance of being disrupted anytime soon. He was blocking them out and trying to reach inner peace or at the very least a state of calm thinking.

However he was still aware of their conversation, and could tell that Natasha wanted to steal Phoenix away. "You did well on your first lesson Phoenix," he informed her, still remaining seated on the ground with his eyes closed. "Work on your breathing."

"Ok," Phoenix nodded and flicked her left hand upwards in an attempt at a goodbye wave at Banner, even though his eyes were closed and he could not see her, and followed Natasha out of his room. "Uh, goodbye, Bruce." Her attempt at a friendly farewell did not go as smooth as Phoenix would've liked, and came out scratched and fractured, like it was damaged in some way.

Phoenix shook her head as she walked away with her face clenched, as if scolding herself for messing up. She made a noise that came from the back of her throat sounding like a mixture of mild anger and disappointment. Natasha recognised the sound. Phoenix had set herself a personal test and failed.

"I didn't know you were on first name terms with Doctor Banner," Natasha mused as they stepped into the elevator and she pressed a button for the training room. Rather than allowing Phoenix to focus her thoughts on social interaction, Natasha changed the subject to something Phoenix actually understood, and that was her training.

Phoenix leaned against the wall of the elevator and shrugged with her arms crossed. "He preferred that I call him Bruce rather than Dr Banner," she looked at Natasha carefully and tilted her head. "Did you want to start training early this morning or is there another reason you were looking for me?" Phoenix asked.

"Training early," Natasha answered. "Clint and I have got something planned for this afternoon, so I figured we'd get as much practise in this morning as we could."

Natasha caught Phoenix continuing to eye her strangely, obviously still confused about something. That was the expression Phoenix seemed to be wearing on her face practically every day, confusion. When she saw Pepper and Tony flirting, whenever Steve asked her about her day and any other instance of normal human interaction. Phoenix didn't understand, literally couldn't understand.

Natasha had cracked a few jokes about Phoenix's lack of understanding with Clint but the issue ran deeper than comedic relief. Natasha wasn't entirely how sure deep the issue ran, because Phoenix was still young there was a possibility that she may recover and learn, but there was also the possibility that she may never understand.

The lift doors slid open and at that same moment there was a barely inaudible sound that Natasha recognised instantly. Phoenix reacted quickly, ducking forward and rolling out of the lift as an arrow shot through the space where Phoenix's head had been mere seconds ago and bounced off the metallic wall. Phoenix came out of the roll at a quick run and rushed towards her assailant.

The second arrow fired once Phoenix had nearly reached the shooter, she reacted by side stepping, so she facing her attacker with her left side. She bent forward, arms tucked into her side and allowed the arrow to fly over her back harmlessly. Her right foot came upwards as she pirouetted on her left foot, kicking the attacker in the face.

He was thrown off balance and Phoenix wasted no time in striking. First she elbowed him in the throat, before serving several fast hits to the stomach. Winded and experiencing difficulty catching his breath, Phoenix had the attacker in a vulnerable position.

Still he managed to clock her in the head with his bow, but Phoenix barely reacted to this attack and stepped behind him, hitting him in the back of the knees so he fell onto them, Phoenix then kicked him in the back hard enough that he fell face forward onto the ground.

Phoenix grinned in triumph as she stepped backwards and allowed Clint to turn over onto his back. Natasha walked towards Phoenix with an eyebrow cocked, twirling the first arrow that Clint had fired in her hands. "It is just too damn hard to catch you by surprise," Clint groaned. "Your reflexes are insane."

"You were going too easy on me," Phoenix stated as she offered him a hand. He took it and Phoenix pulled him to his feet with little effort. "You could've retaliated better than simply hitting me with your bow."

"You seem to forget Phoenix; I am only _pretending_ that I'm trying to kill you," Clint reminded her as Natasha tossed the two arrows that he fired back to him. "That's why I rubber tipped these," he held up the arrows for her to see before he put them back into his quiver.

"Maybe you should've been more convincing in your act then," Natasha commented from behind Phoenix. While the others had been bickering, she started to set up. At her feet there were two blue gym mats, laid out at about a metre distance from each other. "Now are you ready to start?"

"What are we doing first?" Phoenix wasted no time, she practically galloped over to Natasha, eager to start training, and this was evident in the way she bopped up and down on the soles of her feet as she stood in front of Natasha on the other side of the gym mats. Training to Phoenix was like heroin to an addict. Which wasn't exactly healthy, but it was something that Phoenix enjoyed doing, and Natasha wasn't planning on depriving her of it.

"We're going to start with a few techniques that'll help you take down an opponent larger and stronger than you," Clint explained, taking over talking for Natasha who nodded along with his words. Phoenix nodded, looking between the two spies, awaiting further instructions. Clint stepped onto the centre of one of the mats while Natasha shifted so she faced him a fair distance away. "Nat will demonstrate."

Practically the second the words came out of Clint's mouth, Natasha took off at a running speed, headed directly for Clint. He took a defensive stance that proved ineffective, Natasha used her technique and leaped at Clint, throwing her legs around his neck, she spun her entire body. Clint spun and hit the mat in front of him face first, while Natasha stood behind him.

"Did you catch that?" she asked Phoenix as Clint pulled himself to his feet with an exasperated groan. Phoenix quickly looked Natasha up and down, before nodding to show her understanding.

"Can't we tackle Stark to the ground instead?" he asked, stretching his arms out in front of him as he spoke. "I'm getting a little tired of being your punching bag."

Natasha pivoted on her left heel to look at him. "Stark's so wrapped up in whatever he's working on in that lab he probably doesn't even know what year it is. Besides, it's more fun to beat the crap out of you anyway." She cocked her eyebrows as a way of solidifying her statement before pivoting back to Phoenix.

"More fun to beat the crap out of me," Clint quietly mimicked what Natasha had said in a ridiculously high pitched and childish voice as he scrunched up his face into a ridiculous expression and titled his head side to side as he said each word.

Natasha quite obviously heard him but chose to ignore him, focusing her attention primarily on Phoenix. "Your speed is an important part of this technique; you need to go fast in your run-up. Newton's second law, force equals mass times acceleration. You don't have a lot of mass, so if you want to execute a powerful force, acceleration is the key."

Phoenix nodded, taking in the information as she ran through Natasha's words carefully. "I think I got it, and you use your right leg as the control?"

"Correct," Natasha nodded, impressed that Phoenix had picked up on that from one demonstration. She snapped her fingers in the general direction of where Clint was, without looking, as a command for him to get into position. "Now do you wanna give it a try?"

Phoenix nodded, and Clint sighed dramatically where he stood yet again in the centre of the mat. He made no complaints though as he readied himself for the attack and took up his defensive stance. Natasha put her hands on Phoenix's shoulder and gently guided her to where she wanted her to start the run-up.

"Remember to tense your muscles once your legs have a grip around his neck so you don't fall off," Natasha reminded her as she patted Phoenix's biceps. "You can use your arms to steady yourself but it's important that you don't let them get in the way when you execute the final part of the technique."

"You know the thigh strangle is only fun when I'm watching it happen to _other _people!" Clint called out to the girls.

Natasha put a hand on Phoenix's shoulder, while looking Clint directly in the eye with a cocky half-grin, and whispered into her ear "Take him down."

Phoenix wasted no time. She took off at a run as fast as she could possibly move, heading directly for Clint. Natasha watched her closely, processing every move she made carefully. Just before she reached Clint her acceleration decreased, she slowed, attempting to methodise the actual takedown carefully.

It was easy to spot that Clint was resisting the force of the attack as Phoenix spun and pulled herself up to his neck. Phoenix's attempt took time, at one point she seemed at a standstill with her legs wrapped around Clint's neck, attempting to twist him to the ground. Eventually brute force won through, and Phoenix managed to get Clint in a position face down on the ground, but with obvious difficulties.

"Not bad for a first attempt," Natasha commented, bending down to offer a hand to Clint, who had decided to lie on the ground and give Phoenix a respectable thumbs up after his beating. "You hesitated though. Don't think I didn't see that."

Phoenix looked down sheepishly, she'd realised the minute her feet hit the ground she'd screwed up, and failure wasn't something Phoenix was conditioned to tolerate. "I'll try again," the determination in Phoenix's voice almost convinced Natasha to allow Phoenix to attempt to move once more, but she wouldn't be swayed that easily.

"No, I've seen all I need to see," Natasha dismissed her request. "I've noticed you use a lot of isolation in your moves. An attack where you're using your whole body rather than just one part isn't your kind of thing. Usually I wouldn't be too keen on a fighting method like that, but you're quick and that makes up for it."

Phoenix paused, biting on her lip thoughtfully, but as she sighed and allowed her shoulders to slump it was clear that she decided against arguing. Which was a wise move regarding Natasha's skill of winning any argument she participated in. Clint, who quickly recovered from the brief fight, now stood a little way behind Natasha with his lips tightened into a small smile, barely visible in the corner of his mouth.

"Stop smirking," Natasha commanded, face flat, while looking at Phoenix, facing the opposite direction from where Clint stood. He quickly removed his face of all expression, and began nonchalantly whistling whilst inspecting the ceiling.

Natasha stopped, let out a deep breath, and rolled her eyes. "Start stretching. Then when you're done, we'll spar."

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><p>As expected, Phoenix immediately became confused when Natasha gave the cue to finish. Clint had her in an arm lock and she was just about to knock him to his feet with a well-executed kick. Seeing Natasha's hand gesture, Clint stepped away, but Phoenix didn't move.<p>

"I've got a treat for you Phoenix," Natasha's positive expression was enough to confuse Phoenix so much that she actually took a step back and titled her head towards the right. Clint shook his head and came up behind Phoenix, putting one hand on her shoulder as Natasha spoke. "You've got nothing to worry about Phoenix."

"You get to go on an adventure to the real world," Clint spread his arm out in front of him to provide emphasis for his words. However Phoenix didn't understand what he was talking about, as was the norm whenever Clint tried to explain something in joking way. "We're taking you out on the town Phoenix."

She didn't understand that either.

"We're leaving the tower for the afternoon and taking you into the city to show you around," Natasha explained before Clint made another attempt to explain. Natasha nodded to the elevator as Phoenix followed her gaze. "Go up and get changed out of those gym clothes. Meet us in the foyer in 15 minutes."

Phoenix nodded and walked away towards the lift, without even looking back once. The second she was gone, an arm went around Natasha's waist and Clint's lips came crashing down onto hers. They remained lip-locked for less than a minute before Natasha pushed him off.

"C'mon Tasha," he murmured, while pouting.

"Go and get changed out of your sweaty gym clothes Clint," she ordered.

He pursed his lips like he was contemplating an argument. However he huffed in annoyance and exited the room, heading towards the lift. Natasha followed behind him, slipping into the lift as it was just about to close. She decided to have some fun and gave him a teasing look as she stepped to the other side of him and leaned against the wall of the lift.

As the lift opened onto the correct floor Natasha began to walk away but turned around as she exited and put a hand on Clint's chest, pushing him backwards so he couldn't leave. "Don't forget to pull the car around out front." With that, she took her hand off his chest, and strutted away as the lift doors closed in his face.

In her wardrobe Natasha found breathable black tights and a simple, knee-length black dress. Sensible enough for a trip into New York, as she wasn't likely going to be doing much leg work, but if it came to that point, Natasha could fight in anything. She found a pair of sunglasses in one of her drawers and slipped them onto her face. It seemed like a silly idea, but a pair of sunglasses tended to fool a large percentage of the general public.

Downstairs, Phoenix was already waiting for her, wearing an adornment of overlarge garments she had borrowed from various members of the Avengers tower. A white t-shirt was slipping off her shoulders, the sleeves of the black hoodie went well past her hands and the jeans she wore, although smaller, still seemed too baggy on her thin frame.

"We really need to get you some clothes of your own," Natasha muttered as she looked Phoenix's attire up and down.

"This is fine," she shrugged, and the hoodie slipped off her right shoulder.

Clint pulled up out the front of the building in one of Tony's stylish black cars and Natasha ushered Phoenix out of the front door and into the back seat. Clint, in one move, swiftly emerged from the car and threw the keys to Natasha who took her position in the driver's seat while Clint slipped into the passenger seat as Natasha started the ignition.

Clint took one look at Phoenix and furrowed his brows. "Is that Steve's jumper?"

Phoenix had obviously heard the question but ignored Clint as she proceeded to stare out of the window at the moving buildings. As they drove by each street Phoenix would count off the street names, memorising the geography of Manhattan.

"First on the agenda is new clothes," Natasha spoke to Clint while directing her attention at the road. "Pepper's old jeans aren't exactly practical."

"I know exactly the place, they have clothes that would be great for Phoenix," Clint bounced in his seat as he pointed to the traffic lights ahead. "Turn left here."

Natasha obeyed, cutting in front of a taxi as she accelerated to avoid a red light. "You're getting far too excited about this."

With the navigational skills of Clint, Natasha managed to find a parking spot underneath the mall complex minutes later, after having weaved through traffic with determination, managing to annoy a large amount of evening commuters as they did so.

As Phoenix stepped of the car she glanced around her briefly, inspecting her surroundings, her eyes fell on a young couple, arms wrapped around each other as they made their way to their vehicle. She watched them go by with a cautious look but returned her attention to Natasha and Clint, like a soldier awaiting orders.

"Why are we here?" Phoenix questioned. She practically never questioned anything, and from the frown on her face it was obvious that she wasn't happy.

"Showing you around the city will help you adjust to a normal way of life," Natasha answered her question as she put a hand against Phoenix's shoulder and begun leading her towards the elevator that would take them up to the mall.

Phoenix looked scandalised at Natasha's words and opened her mouth as if she wanted to launch into an argument. Instead she hesitated, taking a moment to process Natasha's words. A thought suddenly occurred to her and she looked to the ground and rubbed her eyes as she inhaled a deep breath.

With what looked like an expression of reluctance Phoenix shadowed close behind Natasha as they made their way through the mall complex. Natasha and Clint's demeanours remained calm as usual, blending in perfectly with their surroundings. Phoenix tried her best to act ordinary but Natasha caught her eyeing all the people that walked by, with suspicious glances that bordered dangerously close to terror in the way her face was set.

Natasha knew exactly what she could say to immediately fix Phoenix's behaviour and allow her to operate correctly in her current environment. All she needed to do was adapt their situation, and make Phoenix believe that this was in fact a mission. Natasha wasn't prepared to take that step, to permanently meld Phoenix into the mindset of a spy.

Clint escorted the two women into a trendy looking clothes shop with the latest top 40 pop songs blaring from a loudspeaker somewhere inside the store. Natasha gave Clint a sceptical look and he shrugged, with the outline of a faint grin across his face.

Phoenix inspected the interior of the store and traced her hand across one of the racks of skirts and looked at all of the other people, customers bustled about checking all the clothing on display. Phoenix gave the shop one more up and down look, before she took a step back.

"I don't like this," she looked at Clint and spoke in a flat voice.

Clint pointed upwards at the loud speaker. "Yeah well I don't like Arianna Grande but you don't see me getting cranky about it," he responded to Phoenix's glare by handing her a jacket that he plucked from the racks. "Sometimes, in life, we have to deal with things that we don't like."

Natasha and Clint had differing opinions on what would look good on Phoenix so she ended up with a variety of clothes piled up in her arms. It took some convincing before she was willing to enter the change rooms, at one point she looked like she was going to bolt out of the store. With significant efforts on Natasha's part, Phoenix stepped inside the change room.

She emerged minutes later wearing a buttoned up blue blouse and a white skirt that reached down to her knees, made from clingy material. Clint was enthusiastic, giving Phoenix a thumbs up as she stood there, awkwardly pulling at the bottom of the skirt. Natasha's reaction however was less than positive, as she pulled a face and shook her head.

Clint looked ready to argue with her but Natasha held up a single finger to silence him. "The shirt is fine, what I don't like is the skirt. Besides skirts are difficult anyway, you can't move in them."

Clint huffed and turned to Phoenix, who looked like a soldier awaiting orders. "Try that shirt with the green floral pants I picked out for you."

"I don't like the pattern ones," Phoenix murmured to her shoes, fidgeting with her hands as she avoided looking Clint in the eye.

"But floral looks good on you," he argued. One hardened look from Natasha was enough for him to give up his stance quickly. He threw his hands into the air and sighed. "Fine, hand me all the clothes with patterns on them, you don't have to try them on."

Phoenix gladly tossed the garments into his arms before retreating back into the change room. Clint moved around the store, placing the items back where he had gotten them from. Natasha walked close to him, watching as he scrummaged through the racks.

"You know you're problem is that you're picking things out for her that you think will look good on her, and you're not giving her things that she actually wants to wear," Natasha informed him in a matter-of-fact voice.

"And how exactly am I supposed to know what kind of clothes she likes?" he retorted bitterly.

"It's easy," Natasha faced him on the other side of a sundress rack and leaned forward, lowering her voice slightly. "You're looking at her, but you're not noticing."

"Yes thank you Confucius," he quipped sarcastically, he made an annoyed face at her before continuing with what he was doing. "I'm not like you, I can't figure out what a person's favourite food is by looking at their fingernails."

"You're making me sound like Sherlock Holmes," Natasha chuckled.

"Whatever. I read cues, body language. I can tell what move a person is going to take five seconds before they take it. I don't decipher the fashion choices of teenage girls."

"Phoenix likes plain clothes, no patterns of words," Natasha began explaining to Clint who was shaking his head in amusement. "And I knew that before she told you, it's obvious, because despite her complex mindset Phoenix is outwardly simple. She doesn't stand out in a crowd and neither do her clothes."

Their banter ceased momentarily when Phoenix stepped out of the change room and called out to them, catching their attention. Her outfit of choice for round 2 was a purple sweater, loose but not so big that it slipped off her shoulders, and regular black jeans that reached her ankles.

"Do you like this one?" Natasha asked.

Phoenix nodded.

"The pants aren't too tight on you are they."

Phoenix shook her head.

With a simple wave of the hand from Natasha, Phoenix yet again receded into the change room. Clint folded his arms and mused to himself. "She really is an oddity isn't she," he said this in an affectionate way, smiling in the direction of Natasha.

Natasha wanted to chide him about the fact that Phoenix couldn't help the way she acted, but she knew that wasn't what he was talking about. Natasha smiled lightly. "You're getting soft," she stated, taking a step closer to him and grabbing one of his hands, tracing her fingers slowly across his bruised knuckles. "Late nights punching the wall?"

He tried to pull his hand away, but Natasha gripped him tightly, making him wince. "Something like that," he sighed, avoiding her eyes, however after a minute he bowed to the strength behind her glare. "Things got heated with one of the dummies in the gym. I was half-asleep and forgot to protect my hands."

"Uh-huh," Natasha made an unimpressed sound that sound like she only half-believed what he had told her. She looked around for anyone who might take particular notice of them, before she put a hand on Clint's shoulder, pulling him down to her height, and pressing her lips against his. "My room tonight," she murmured into his ear as she pulled away.

They stepped away from each other as two things happened at the same time. Phoenix stepped out of the change room in a dark blue sundress, at the same moment as Natasha's phone buzzed with an incoming text. Phoenix, who looked like she had warmed up to idea of clothes shopping, looked at the phone in Natasha's hand with concern.

"It's Tony," Natasha announced as she read the text. "He wants us back at the Tower ASAP, Maria has extremely important news for us, and that includes Phoenix." Natasha glanced upwards at Phoenix and turned her phone off. "Those were Tony's exact words."

Clint shrugged. "Well then let's pay up and get out."


	4. The Past

**A/N: The plot thickens! We're getting deeper into the story here guys, and this one was pretty intense to write. Now this chapter focuses heavily on Phoenix but is super important to the plot line. Next chapter Loki will finally be making his appearance, I bet you were all wondering when he would show up. So there's that to look forward to, but for now, read, review and enjoy.**

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><p>Natasha knew something was wrong the second she stepped out of the elevator and saw a row of confused and concerned faces. In the middle of it all, Maria stood there expectantly, arms crossed in front of her where she stood in between Tony and Steve.<p>

Phoenix saw Maria and faltered slightly as she walked, hesitating for just a second, with her foot in the air as she debated whether or not to move closer. She continued walking, stopping just behind Natasha and to her left, where she could be involved in what was happening, but held a defensive position.

"Tell us what's happening," Clint spoke as he held a shopping bag in each hand like it was nothing. Though eventually he did place the bags down and to the side.

"We don't know," Tony opened his mouth, cutting across Maria who was just about to speak. "She wanted to wait until you guys got here so she could tell all of us at once."

"And I was just about to tell you all," Maria glared at Tony, speaking sharply, before resuming to address everyone. "We have a situation, involving the other teenagers that Doctor Blake experimented on."

The silence seemed to echo throughout the entire room, as everyone slowly turned to look at Phoenix. They all expected her to say something, but instead she stood, ridged to the spot as she processed what had been said in her head. The only sound that pierced the silence was Phoenix's panicked gasp as an expression of fear washed over her face, but still she couldn't form words.

"What happened?" Natasha asked Maria, but her gaze was firmly settled on Phoenix as she put a hand on her shoulder.

"No one's been hurt, but the details of the situation will take some explaining," Maria motioned to the couches for them to sit down, which they proceeded to do, aside from Phoenix, who stood behind the lounge, her face devoid of emotion.

"After Doctor Blake led the attack on SHIELD HQ, Fury began monitoring the kids," Maria began, sitting on the edge of the lounge and leaning forward as she spoke. "This was around the time he was suspicious on what was happening inside of SHIELD, so he set it up in secret, used a private security team. It all turned out to be worth the effort when the enemy emerged."

"Fury was worried about Hydra getting their hands on the kids," Steve deduced.

"Exactly. Now Fury tried his hardest to erase all the information about the kids, but somehow they found out," Maria inhaled a deep breath before continuing. "A couple of hours ago I got word that some enemy shadows were seen in areas close to where the kids live. So I'm bringing them in."

"What!" Tony exclaimed loudly. "I am not running a day care centre here, you can't just dump them on me like this."

"Would you rather Hydra get their hands on them?" Bruce asked sarcastically.

"_Hail Hydra."_

A mumbled whisper fell from Phoenix's mouth, incomprehensible to those surrounding her. Natasha heard her make a noise and turned around where she sat, only to see a terrified Phoenix standing behind her, looking as if she had just encountered her worst nightmare.

"Hydra's behind this?" she demanded. "How is that possible?"

"They were inside of SHIELD the whole time," Natasha told her calmly, hoping that by speaking softly, Phoenix would not reach a dangerous level of panic. "They were the ones that took down the Triskelion and dismantled SHIELD. We didn't want to tell you too much, because we were worried you might respond badly."

"Sorry, by the way," Bruce apologised.

Phoenix stammered frantically before she could form proper words. "I need to," she turned as is she was going to walk away but then whirled back around to face the group. "Wait! The others are coming here?" Her right hand began making movements as she flicked her wrist around in circles.

Maria hesitated before giving an answer, seeing that Phoenix was close to the edge. A gentle nod from Natasha allowed her to speak. "Yes, they'll be here tomorrow Phoenix."

Phoenix did something completely unexpected upon hearing Maria's answer, the panicked expression drained out of her face she smiled warmly. "This is good, I haven't seen them for so long and I barely know them," she spoke optimistically, talking to herself rather than addressing the people around her.

Phoenix walked over and picked up the shopping bags Clint had put down earlier, finally turning to look at the slightly stunned group of adults that watched her curiously. "I'm going to put these away," she still smiled as she spoke, but awkwardly folded her arms with the bags still hanging from her wrist. "Bye."

With that she darted off into the elevator, leaving the others seated on the couch, as they watched the doors close on her with confused expressions. The first to speak was Tony, pointing to where Phoenix had been standing earlier. "What was that?"

Maria ignored Tony's question and rose to her feet. "I better get going," she sighed as she looked at Natasha and Clint. "They're arriving at 8 Am tomorrow. Make sure you tell Phoenix before then, or else you're going to have a disaster on your hands."

"A disaster, what disaster?" Steve questioned, but received no answer, because Maria had already begun walking away and had no intention of turning around to continue the conversation. So instead Steve turned to Natasha. "What disaster is she talking about?"

"The kids," Clint spoke before Natasha could. "Phoenix is expecting some big happy reunion, but those kids hate her, and they are not going to react friendly when they see Phoenix again. While you and Nat interrogated Phoenix, I was the one that questioned the kids. Nothing that came out of their mouths was positive, they believe Phoenix is a monster."

Out of curiosity for his reaction, Natasha glanced at Bruce out of the corner of her eye, subtly enough so no one noticed. Natasha saw him uncross his hands and shift in his seat, recognition flashed across his face and he inhaled a deep breath and tensed his shoulders. Natasha saw it plain as day. He was, after all, the only one who knew what it was like to be a monster.

Natasha looked away and sighed. "Someone needs to tell her."

"I can do it," Steve volunteered.

"Are you sure Rogers?" Natasha questioned. "She's fragile, and something like this could potentially strike a blow to her mental stability."

Steve nodded in determination as he stood up. "I can handle her Nat."

Natasha seemed to consider this for a moment, weighting the negative outcomes against positive ones. Finally she gave him a curt head nod, Steve making the same notion in return as he exited the room. Walking calmly in the direction of Phoenix's room, he mulled over what he was going to say in his head, carefully picking out anything that could be insensitive towards her.

As he approached her door he mentally readied himself, then rapped his knuckles on the door, once, twice, three times. On the other side of the door he heard a muffled noise of surprise, then silence. Roughly three seconds passed before the door opened a crack and Phoenix titled her head out of the gap and stared at him.

"Steve," Phoenix said, and upon recognising her visitor, stood up straight and opened the door further, leaning against the door frame while keeping a one-handed grip on the edge of the door.

"Hey kiddo," he greeted her with a smile and motioned inside her room. "You gonna let me in?"

She seemed stunned for a moment with her mouth slightly agape, then her eyes widened as if she had forgotten something. "Yes, of course, sorry," she opened the door all the way and stepped to the side to allow him to walk in. "I keep forgetting," she muttered to herself, furrowing her brow in annoyance.

"Hey it's ok," Steve reassured her, gently putting a hand on her shoulder. "Come and sit down, I've got something we need to talk about."

Phoenix looked concerned as she sat on the edge of her bed. Steve sat down next to her and looked around her room curiously. It appeared quite plain, with white walls, ordinary looking carpets and no unique furniture, but Phoenix had tried her best to decorate with the few possessions she owned.

On the dressing table were a stack of CDs that tilted slightly to the left, and the teddy bear Tony had given her, that sat in front of a mirror that Phoenix had covered with a small black pillowcase. The sheets that adorned Phoenix's bed were purple as she had her four pillows propped up into a makeshift nest in the centre of the bed. Two for her to rest on, and then one on either side of her head.

Steve turned back to Phoenix, seeing her watching him expectantly. "Is something wrong?" she asked him worriedly, taking his silence, as he debated what to say, the wrong way.

"Not exactly," he rubbed the back of his neck. He exhaled a deep breath before continuing. "Phoenix sometimes we make mistakes, and while we're making these mistakes we don't always realise the damage we're causing to other people."

"Wha-What are you trying to say?" Phoenix stammered slightly, confused, and not quite understanding why Steve was telling her these things.

"Do you remember the things you did, and the things you said, the last time you saw the other kids?" Steve asked. Phoenix stopped, and nodded as she looked down at the ground. "The thing is Phoenix, these kids don't know you as well as you'd like to think they do. They've only ever seen one side of you Phoenix, and it's not the good side."

Phoenix was starting to put pieces together, she looked at Steve, nodding slowly as she added up the facts. "They only saw me when I was following…him," she couldn't bring herself to say the name and as she clasped her hands together tightly, scratched a fine layer of skin off her hands with her fingernails. "When I was doing horrible things."

Steve nodded. "Do you see where I'm going with this now?" he asked her softly, receiving a small nod as his answer. "When those kids arrive tomorrow, they might not react well to seeing you. It'll take some time for them to adjust to what happened to them, but if you show them the real Phoenix, the good Phoenix, I know they'll come around. Things like these take time though."

Phoenix didn't seem to fully believe his words, and looked down to the ground, scrunching her face up, and then rubbing her eyes. "While I was with…him, I uh, well I didn't have anyone who understood me. People came and went day in and day out, scientists, trainers, teachers, and some of his associates. No one was a constant, except for him of course."

She looked like she was struggling to put what she wanted to say into words, and clenched and unclenched her fist repeatedly like she was trying to physically grasp the correct sentence. "I'd heard about them all my life and knowing that there were people out there, who understood, I've always wanted to meet them," Phoenix's voice softened as she found it more difficult to speak. "We were always supposed to be a team, but that was what he wanted me to believe."

Steve wanted to lean forward and wrap his arms around her, but knowing she found physical interaction distressing he decided against it. Instead he fixed her with a sincere gaze and a small smile. "You don't open up to people a lot do you?"

Phoenix looked away as if she was ashamed. "I'm not supposed to do that," she muttered and shook her head. "It's a highly unintelligent thing to do, and it makes you vulnerable."

"Only when you open up to the wrong people."

Phoenix pondered on that for a moment and then nodded. "That actually makes sense," she gave him a small smile. "Thank you Steve."

"No problem kiddo," he stood up and looked down at her. "Try and get a good night's sleep yeah. Those dark lines under your eyes aren't getting any better."

Phoenix nodded and watched The Captain exit the room with a distant and faded expression on her face. Once the door closed behind him, Phoenix broke, and finally let the violent sobbing overwhelm her.

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><p>The next morning for Clint started with mild confusion and a hint of concern, as he awoke in Natasha's bed and noticed that she was not lying next to him. Sitting up with a grunt and glancing around the room he saw his clothes from last night were neatly folded at the base of the bed, but Natasha was nowhere to be seen.<p>

He kicked the silk sheets off his body before swinging his legs out of the bed and standing up. With a certain amount of speed to his actions, Clint got dressed and started making his way towards the living area, which was most likely to be Natasha's current position.

Clint proved himself correct, spotting Natasha instantly. She was sitting on the back of the couch with Phoenix sitting in front of her, legs crossed on the couch. As Natasha turned around to look at him he saw she had a comb in her mouth and she was holding onto strands of Phoenix's long, copper coloured hair.

"There you are," Natasha's voice was muffled as she talked with the comb still in her mouth. "It's getting close to 8 o'clock, did you only just wake up?"

He ignored her question, folding his arms across his chest as he watched the two girls with a bemused expression on his face. "You should've started the braid further down," he commented.

This earned him a scoff from Natasha, who used on hand to hold three separate strands of hair while she used her remaining hand to take the comb from her mouth and then obliterate several knots, before placing the comb to the side and continuing with her work. "I know what I'm doing," said Natasha as she gave him a pointed look.

Clint grinned and walked into the kitchen, spending several minutes attempting to find a drink that was non-alcoholic, and poured two glasses of orange juice. He took them over to where Phoenix sat on the couch and kneeled down in front of her. He offered her one of the glasses of juice. "If you need me to save you just say the word."

Phoenix smiled, a small, shy smile, as she took the glass off Clint and started sipping at it. Natasha however, was looking down on him from her perch with an annoyed expression. "It's fine," Phoenix spoke softly, waving away Clint's joke. "I thought it might be nice."

Natasha gave him a satisfied smirk as she finished her braid proudly. "Finished," she declared, grabbing a hand mirror from beside her, she led Phoenix to the bathroom so she faced the large mirror, and then held the hand mirror behind her so she could see Natasha's handiwork. "Do you like it?"

Phoenix ran a hand over it cautiously, careful not to disrupt it and ruin Natasha's hard work. "I do like it, thank you Natasha," she turned to her and smiled, before turning back around to face the mirror so she could continue to inspect her new hairstyle.

Natasha and Clint shared a triumphant look between each other, they were making progress with Phoenix's social mannerisms. She had thanked Natasha without hesitation, and the words had sounded natural when she spoke them. Phoenix was learning quicker than they had expected her to.

"You're welcome milaya moya," Natasha responded warmly, calling Phoenix something in Russian. Clint understood what she had said and fixed her with a surprised, but grinned at what she had said. Natasha saw him looking at her and smiled, turning away from him and back to Phoenix.

They returned to the living area and found Steve and Pepper having a conversation on the couch. They stopped talking however, when Pepper spotted Phoenix and gasped in delightful surprise. "Phoenix your hair looks gorgeous," she complimented her brightly.

Phoenix smiled awkwardly in response and looked at Steve, who gave her a thumbs up. She watched Steve for a fair amount of time before glancing at the clock, seeing the position of the hands obviously sparked panic, as she exhaled a shuddery breath.

"Phoenix," Natasha reassured her gently. "If it goes badly, we'll be beside you the whole time."

Phoenix seemed to relax slightly, and nodded at Natasha's words. "I can do this," she seemed to be trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince the others around her. "Let's go downstairs. It's nearly 8 and I want to be ready for them."

Clint and Natasha both agreed to this idea and walked downstairs with Phoenix and Steve, Pepper electing to remain upstairs as she had important work in preparation for a Stark Industries board meeting and didn't want to involve herself too heavily with the current situation anyway.

Downstairs in the foyer, Natasha and Phoenix sat side by side on a lounge chair while Steve paced up and down in front of them and Clint leaned against the wall. Tony and Bruce joined them after several minutes and then their wait continued, wrapped in complete silence.

If Phoenix was trying to hide her nerves, she was not trying very hard. Her foot tapped the floor impatiently gently hit her fist against her thigh. At five to eight, her movements changed, and she began rubbing the back of her neck anxiously. The suspense seemed to be getting to her, and if it went on for much longer Phoenix might do something unpredictable.

Two identical black BMW 7-Series pulled up in front of the building and when Phoenix saw them she leapt to her feet and looked at Natasha fearfully. Natasha murmured words of reassuming as their group walked outside the building, waiting in a neat line for the occupants of the car to emerge. Despite having both Natasha and Clint at her side, Phoenix still looked like she wanted to run away.

The way she was acting wasn't really all that surprising. The last time she saw the other kids, she had been under the control of Doctor Blake, and four of the children had been, in turn, under Phoenix's control. After her drastic escape from the island, Phoenix travelled the country and collected Joshua Smith, Samuel Lidsdale, Isabella Mason and Marcus Winters from various cities around the states.

Heather James, the final teenager Phoenix was meant to collect, managed to escape Phoenix's capture, and had warned the Avenger twice about Phoenix and Doctor Blake. The second time The Avengers had encountered Heather, Phoenix had attacked the tower along with the other teenagers, delivering a message from Doctor Blake.

Each of these children had been injected with the same serum that had made Phoenix what she was, when they were all six years old. However Doctor Blake had not kept them locked in a basement for 10 years and tortured them. Phoenix was the only one to receive that privilege. Each of the children possessed their own unique gifts, but in their minds, this made them freaks.

The only person they hated more than themselves, was Phoenix

From the first vehicle three boys stepped out, Joshua Smith, Samuel Lidsdale and then finally Marcus Winters. Emerging from the second vehicle, were the two girls, Isabella Mason and Heather James. Some of them looked excited, but others, Heather and Joshua in particular, looked extremely bored and equally as annoyed.

The drivers of each car began unloading the luggage for each of the sixteen years olds, as the five teenagers looked up and down the line of Avengers, all of them looking curious, but Marcus and Samuel were each trying to hide excited looks.

Isabella was the first to notice Phoenix.

Her eyes bugged and her mouth began to tremble in fear, taking a step back, she collided into Samuel. He saw Phoenix as well and went completely rigid, looking like he had stopped breathing entirely. The other three saw her and experienced equally horrified reactions.

Heather cupped a hand over her mouth, her knees crumpled beneath her and she nearly fell to the ground, but managed to stay upright by using her free hand to cling to Joshua's shirt sleeve. Marcus attempted to take slow, shaky steps backwards but was stopped by the car behind him.

Natasha gripped Phoenix's forearm, trying to keep her calm, but it was no use. Phoenix saw their reactions, all of them as they stood before her, looking at her like she was their greatest nightmare. It was worse than she had expected, it wasn't supposed to be like this.

The silence was horrifying, there were no other words for it. The only noises that could be heard were muffled sobbing sounds come from Isabella as she barely kept herself together. Natasha knew that if they remained outside making a scene they would attract unwanted attention.

Tony was the one to come to the rescue on that front. "How about we all go inside where we can talk this over," he suggested carefully.

Wrapped up so tightly in their fear Natasha wasn't even sure if they had actually heard what Tony had said, but they all followed him into the building, carrying their luggage with them as they did so. Each one of them stopped for a second before walking through the doors to look at Phoenix in fear, Heather the last to follow Tony through the doors, held her gaze with Phoenix the longest.

After they had entered the building Phoenix finally spoke. "They're terrified of me," she didn't sound shocked at all, she sounded like she was stating a fact.

Clint put an arm around her shoulder. "They need time Phoenix," he told her. "We'll give them a minute to calm down, and then we'll head up there. Once they get to know the real Phoenix, they won't be scared of you anymore."

Phoenix looked incredibly doubtful, but attempted a smile for Clint's sake. Bruce looked extremely concerned for Phoenix but didn't act on it, allowing Natasha and Clint to properly handle her. Steve clearly felt the same way, but there was regret in his expression as well. Thinking back to what he had said to her last night, he felt like he had given her false hope.

Arm still around Phoenix, Clint led her upstairs after several minutes of waiting and Natasha followed, close to the other side of Phoenix. In the time they had been waiting, Tony had the teenagers put their things into their respective rooms and then led them into the living area. The five of them cramming themselves onto the one couch, too afraid to be by themselves.

When Phoenix entered the room, they held their breath, but aside from that they did not have a severe reaction. However the fear was still evident in their eyes. Phoenix broke away from Clint and elected to stand while the rest of the adults took a seat.

Natasha was half-expecting there to be an awkward silence, but instead Heather spoke up almost immediately. "Why are we here?" she demanded, looking at Tony as she spoke. Her lips pursed, and nostrils flared, it was easy to see that Heather was extremely ticked off.

Looking at Heather the first word that popped into most people's minds were cheerleader. She was tall for her age, with a slim, feminine body shape. Her long blonde curls bounced around her as she moved her head, her brown eyes fitted into a long oval face with pale skin. Natasha's past experiences with Heather didn't put the young girl into Natasha's good books, and out of all the teenagers, she seemed to be the one who hated Phoenix the most.

"You were in danger," Natasha told her. "We removed you from your homes to protect you from Hydra."

All of the kids looked at each other before Marcus Winters turned to Natasha. "What does Hydra want with us?"

Marcus looked like a decent enough kid. Halfway between a gangly and athletic build, he was average height for a boy his age, probably the same height as Heather. He has messy black hair that barely went passed his ears and striking bright blue eyes that made his colour drained skin look ghostly pale. He could've passed for gothic if he was wearing all black.

Clint moved to answer him, but Isabella Mason answered the question for him. "Take a look at us Mark. They want us because of what we can do. She's right, this is the only safe place for us."

Natasha had only heard the girl speak once before, when she had begged for help the one time Phoenix had ambushed the tower. Already Natasha considered her the most intelligent one there. Isabella was a very short, and small shaped girl. Her long brown hair and dark eyes complimented her heart shaped face perfectly, with a small nose, thin lips and porcelain skin, she looked like a china doll had come to life.

"Safe!" Joshua Smith nearly jumped to his feet as he exclaimed in outrage. He pointed a sharp finger directly at Phoenix. "We're not anywhere close to safe while she's here. She's a psychopath!"

Joshua Smith was very easily described by the word grumpy. His dirty blonde hair nearly matched Marcus's in dishevelment and his bright green eyes always seemed to be shooting people a dirty look. He didn't have much going for him height-wise, his skin was pale and freckled, and he seemed to be wearing a permanent expression of disgust.

Phoenix looked away in shame, unable to look Joshua in the eye as he remained pointing an accusing finger at her. Heather threw herself into the debate the second she saw an opening. "Josh is right, you can't expect us to live in the same building as her. She'll slit our throats while we sleep."

Before Natasha could begin to explain that Heather's accusations were beyond ridiculous, Joshua leapt to his feet, inspired by Heather's support, and began a verbal attack. "Don't you know what she's done? Have you forgotten how many people she butchered? She's a cold-blooded killer, and you're all treating her like some kind of house pet!"

Samuel Lidsdale put a hand on Joshua's chest and pushed him backwards gently to prevent a physical fight.

Samuel was a big looking kid, extremely tall and extremely buff, he was a clear member of a football team. His brown hair was cropped short, and his light brown eyes showed determination behind black, rectangular rimmed glasses, that sat firmly on his large nose. In short, he looked like a tough kid.

"Hey you wanna shut up!" Clint took the defensive on behalf of Phoenix, Natasha saw it as admirable but she knew what might happen if a fight broke out. "You are just a pair of stuck-up brats and you have no idea what you're talking about."

Mt Vesuvius might as well have just erupted in the room considering what happened next.

Samuel had to restrain Joshua who began shouting insults without stopping to take a breath , and Heather rushed to her feet and joined him. Tony and Clint stood up and held their ground, both the men shouting right back at them. Heather turned it on Phoenix in a second, she pointed, she screeched and spat accusations.

Steve tried to call for order but no one seemed to be listening, nearly everyone in the room aside from Natasha, Bruce and Phoenix had joined the throng. Isabella was screeching at Heather, begging her to calm down, and Marcus was helping Samuel to hold back Joshua, who was reaching the peak of agitation and looked ready to charge someone.

Calmly, Natasha rose to her feet and walked away, stopping just before the door, she turned and took a knife from her belt. No one had seen her move, too wrapped up in their own mass argument. She aimed the knife, and then threw it with a deadly force. It hit the glass vase, located on a coffee table directly in the centre of the chaos.

It shattered instantly on contact with the knife, and glass sprayed everywhere. The shock of this event was enough to create complete silence in the room. Every eye in the room turned to Natasha who stood with a matter-of-fact expression and a cocky stance.

"Now that I have your attention," she spoke sweetly, although her voice was laced with a hidden anger. "Everybody sit down," her voice became flat and her so did her expression. This was enough to strike fear into the hearts of everyone in the room.

Within seconds everyone had returned to their original seats and were all looking rather ashamed of themselves. With a satisfied smile, Natasha walked over to the remains of what had once been the glass vase and picked up her knife, returning it to her belt.

Phoenix smirked, but bit her lip trying to hide it, looking down at her feet. Heather glared at her sourly, and seeing her expression, her eyes narrowed even further and her scowl became so tight it looked like her face was going to crack.

"What are you smirking at?" Heather spat viciously. Immediately Phoenix's face fell and she looked away from Heather, avoiding her hard glare, but Heather hadn't finished with her. "You think, because you're their little lap dog, that you can pretend that all of the things you did never happened. You're a monster Phoenix, and no matter how hard you try you'll always be Doctor Blake's pet psychopath."

Phoenix finally reached the capacity of what she could handle. She took one last horrified look at Heather, before fleeing from the room.


	5. The Heat

**A/N: Serious warning guys, we've got some mild sexual content in this chapter, so I just thought I should give you all a heads up before you read on. Not to mention a 'not so surprising' appearance from someone I know you've been excited to see appear in this story. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, I'm seeing a lot of support for Phoenix which is awesome, but she has a bit more to deal with in this story as do all the characters. But shush, spoilers. As always, please read, review and enjoy.**

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><p>Natasha felt like giving the kids a day to adjust was necessary given the circumstances. Each of the kids had been sent to their rooms after Natasha gave them all a vicious talking to about their behaviour, which left a couple of them trembling in fear.<p>

Natasha and Clint then sat outside Phoenix's bedroom, begging her to come out, but receiving silence as their answer. After four hours she finally emerged, and it took another five hours before she could speak, but blatantly refused to talk about what had happened with Heather. Natasha was just grateful she hadn't thrown herself out a window.

Phoenix didn't interact with the other teenagers until the next morning, when Natasha practically dragged them all out of bed shortly after dawn broke and lined them all up in the training room. Thankfully Maria had put together gym clothes, suitable for training, for each of the kids.

Clint stood beside her, looking up and down the row of dishevelled and exhausted teenagers with a raised eyebrow. Natasha had tried her best to line them up in an orderly fashion, but all of them except Phoenix had huddled together on one side of the room, while Phoenix stood by herself on the other side of the room.

Clint turned to Nat with his arms folded. "They need a name."

Natasha looked at him strangely, with her forehead creased. "Do you mean a team name?"

"Yeah that's exactly what I mean," he responded, nodding eagerly. Natasha opened his mouth, obviously going to argue but Clint spoke first." We can't exactly keep calling them 'The Kids' can we? We need something to identify them as a group."

Natasha looked them up and down, turning back to Clint and scoffing, she motioned a hand in their direction. "Look at them Clint, what hope do they have of ever being a team? We're not training the Avengers 2.0 here. They can barely stand to look at each other."

Overhearing the conversation, Heather piped up from where she was standing. "She's right we're not a team," Heather looked the most lively out of all of them, but the lines under her eyes were darkest. "We're not even superheroes. We're just a bunch of experiments."

Clint clapped his hands together triumphantly and grinned, much to the confusion of both Natasha and Heather. "Well there it is then. You're The Experiments."

The newly named Experiments looked around at each other, silently communicating on their feelings towards the new name. Most of them didn't appear to have a particular hatred towards it, except Heather. She huffed, and flared her nostrils. "That's a stupid name," she muttered.

"I like it," Phoenix spoke up from the corner of the room, smiling at Clint.

Heather scowled, which only increased Natasha's positive attitude towards their new name. Clint looked extremely smug as Natasha glanced over at him, she rolled her eyes in silent response and directly faced The Experiments. They seemed to have woken up over the past couple of minutes, which meant it was time to begin.

"You each possess a unique skill due to whatever serum you were injected with," Natasha stated the fact, and several of the kids looked down at their feet in shame. At the word serum, Phoenix tensed. "Due to your gifts, you are extremely desirable to all enemy forces, because they will want to use you as a weapon."

"Hydra already knows about your existence to some degree," Clint took over explaining for Natasha. "You need to learn how to defend yourself against enemy threats, and that is why you are here. So we can teach you how to protect yourselves."

The Experiments looked around at each other, silently communicating for a second time that morning. Natasha watched them look around at each other, Mark shook his head and Heather who glared at him in response. Josh and Bella shared a look, before both of them communicated with Heather.

Natasha watched in astonishment. From what she understood, all of The Experiments had not been together in one room since Heather had been present in the Tower when Phoenix and the other Experiments had attacked to deliver a warning on behalf of Doctor Blake.

They were communicating in the same way Natasha and Clint did, and the only reason the two of them could do that was because they had worked together for so many years. To communicate silently, with only glances to illustrate what they were saying, required an emotional bond that developed over several years. The Experiments were more closely linked than they realised.

When none of them spoke, Natasha motioned to the centre of the room where she had strategically placed a circular platform, roughly 4 meters in diameters and was roughly half a meter in height. "Go stand on that, and show us what you can do."

Her command was met with several confused and stubborn glances, so she pointed to Phoenix and gestured for her to stand by her side, which she did so without hesitation. "Phoenix will give you a demonstration so you know what I'm talking about."

Phoenix nodded in understanding and took to the centre of the room, standing on the podium and awaiting a command from Natasha. Natasha checked to make sure The Experiments were watching and they gave Phoenix her cue. "Begin."

Phoenix took a ready stance and ignited a flame in her hands. Moving her hands around in a martial arts movement, the flames moved with them, dancing around her as Phoenix moved. Phoenix thrust her hands forward, the flames shooting out from her palms, creating a trail of fire that circled around Natasha and Clint.

Phoenix moved her hands backwards towards herself, the fire changing it trajectory, it flew back to Phoenix, coating her arms before it faded away to nothing. Natasha signalled to Clint with one hand as Phoenix moved into another ready stance. Clint lifted his bow, arrow at the ready and fired.

The arrow's trajectory sent it flying towards Phoenix's shoulder. Phoenix moved her hands, and with a flame sparking in her palms, she swiftly jutted her hands to the left. The rush of air from the fire blew the arrow too far to the left, so it bypassed Phoenix entirely and harmlessly flew past her.

Clint fired three more arrows and Phoenix executed a similar moved each time to deflect them away from her body. Natasha gave her the cue to finish after the third arrow and Phoenix jumped down from the podium, walking to stand beside Natasha.

"That's how you do it," Natasha looked at Phoenix proudly before addressing The Experiments. "Now does anyone want to volunteer?"

They all looked at each other uneasily, but after a minute no one stepped forward so Natasha turned to Clint. He smirked and pointed to Joshua. "Joshua, let's go buddy. Up on the podium."

"He prefers Josh over his full name," Phoenix turned to Clint and corrected him. "The same goes for Marcus, Samuel and Isabella. They go by Mark, Sam and Bella, those are their nicknames."

Bella and Sam shifted uncomfortably at being named personally by Phoenix, while Josh looked extremely angry, Mark was the only one that didn't take it the wrong way, and actually looked surprised that Phoenix had remembered the facts about their names.

Clint shrugged and went along with the request, instructing Josh to get up on the podium which he did, but was obviously reluctant to the idea. He stood on the podium and looked at Natasha and Clint with his face scrunched up and arms folded.

"I don't know what you expect me to do," Josh huffed as he spoke bitterly. "My ability doesn't help me to defend against arrows."

"Just give us a demonstration and we'll go from there," Natasha fought the urge to roll her eyes.

Josh sighed dramatically and unfolded his arms. He seemed to realise that he could not argue against Natasha, so he exhaled a deep breath and tightened his face in concentration. Then, just like that, Josh vanished, and he became completely invisible.

Natasha had experience with retro-reflection panels and other devices that made certain object invisible. What Natasha saw, or rather what she didn't see, was something completely different. Usually, when using invisibility as a camouflage, you would be able to see the outline of a person or thing when they moved, if you looked closely enough. No matter how carefully Natasha scanned her surrounding, she couldn't see any sign of a shape or movement out of place.

"Impressive," Clint commented, sounding genuine as he looked around the room, searching for any sign of Josh. "Where are you anyway?"

"Over here," he called out from behind Natasha and Clint, appearing on the other side of the room, turning off his invisibility like it was a switch. "Am I done now?"

"Sure, go stand back in the line," Clint waved him away and Josh gladly resumed his place in the line next to Heather. Clint looked up and down the line, eventually settling on one face, Clint pointed to Bella. "You're up next, let's go."

Bella hesitated, but showed less resistance in taking to the podium. She struggled to stand on it, being the shortest, it took her a minute to lift up her leg and push herself onto the raised platform. Bella stood there for a minute awkwardly, unsure of what to do. Someone from behind her obviously egged her on, because Bella nodded in determination.

She raised her hands, palms upwards toward the ceiling, and within seconds a black mist began seeping out of her hands, soon she was engulfed by a black mist. The mist was so dark all light was completely purged from it and Natasha couldn't see through it.

The mist began spreading, and soon it was around Natasha's feet, creeping upwards towards her. Natasha wasn't sure how to react, the blackness moving towards her seemed eternal, and a small degree of panic sparked in Natasha's chest that she would be engulfed by this eternal darkness.

Bella obviously saw that the people around her were growing fearful so she made a movement with her hands, and the mist faded away until it had completely vanished. However Bella was not done yet, she held up a hand and clicked her fingers together.

The room was purged of all light as darkness flooded the room in a swift motion, making it impossible to see anything. Natasha was flooded with a sense of Déjà vu as she remembered back to when The Experiments had attacked the Tower, and Bella had used the exact same technique to enable them to break in and catch everyone by surprise.

Light returned to the room after a little less than a minute and Natasha breathed in relief once she could see again. Bella looked embarrassed as she stepped down from the podium and hurried back to where she had been standing earlier.

Clint seemed to have been affected heavily by Bella's power, looking ahead of him darkly, at nothing in particular. He came to his senses and corrected himself, looking at The Experiments who had still yet to give their demonstrations. He pointed to Mark and signalled him forward. "Ok Mark, show us what you've got."

Mark cracked his knuckles and stepped forward. Cockily, he strutted towards the podium and placed his foot onto it, stepping upwards in a leaping motion. He spun around and motioned to Clint in a 'bring it on gesture'. "Come on, fire some arrows at me."

Clint turned to Natasha, with a raised eyebrow, checking that he had permission from Nat before fulfilling Mark's request. Behind Natasha, Sam was chuckling while Heather and Bella shared an annoyed glance. Phoenix looked at Mark, intrigued by his actions.

Natasha gave Clint the all clear with a nod of her head, and he drew an arrow. Clint fired, and Mark moved like a blur, running at an impossible speed, he ended up on the other end of the room in a second. He grinned proudly, and gestured to Clint to keep the arrows coming

Shaking his head at Mark's arrogance, Clint drew another arrow. Yet again, Mark used his supernatural speed to run from the arrow and avoid being hit. Natasha watched as Clint fired five more times, each time Mark continued to get more and more insufferable.

Clint drew his eighth arrow, and winked at Natasha before fixing Mark with a devious smirk. As predicted, when Clint fired, Mark ran. However Clint had figured out Mark's pattern, and at the last minute, had aimed his arrow in a different direction.

The arrow hit Mark square in the chest, mid-run, and bounced off him. He stopped, and shell-shocked, looked down at the arrow on the ground with his mouth in an O shape, and then looked up at Clint, extremely stunned. "You hit me," he actually sounded like he hadn't expected it at all.

"Oh relax. The arrows are rubber tipped, they're not going to hurt you," Clint sighed, looking to Natasha with a satisfied grin, before turning back to Mark. "You gave it your best shot kid, but you're movements were predictable. You might wanna work on that."

With a hand over the spot on his chest where the arrow hit him, Mark moved back to where he was standing, his mouth opening and closing as he struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Natasha heard a soft and light, high pitched laughed coming from her right, and turned to see Phoenix with a wide grin on her face, and laughing.

Natasha looked at her in happy disbelief, and shared this expression with Clint, who looked extremely pleased, and smiled at Phoenix. She stopped laughing after half a second, smiling back at Clint, she put a hand over her mouth and bit her lip.

Clint mood significantly improved, he looked over the remaining two Experiments and pointed at Sam. "Alright let's go, up on the podium."

Sam looked hesitant, but shrugged, and walked up to the podium and stepped onto it. He looked like he was at a loss for what to do, and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to do," he admitted honestly.

"What can you do?" Natasha asked. "In your own words, how would you describe your ability."

"Uh, basically I control electricity," he spoke, and then decided that wasn't quite right and corrected himself. "No I control electric charges, or electrical currents. I'm really not sure." An idea seemed to occur to him after a second and he looked up at the lights.

Sam squinted his eyes in intense concentration, focusing entirely on the ceiling lights. They began flickering, and as Sam progressed their flickering ceased, and they gradually grew brighter until Natasha actually had to look away because it was burning her eyes. The lights returned to their normal brightness as Sam focused his attention elsewhere.

He raised a hand dramatically, and as he brought his arm down in a sharp motion, a bolt of lightning came down from the ceiling and struck to the left of Sam. It seemed to strike closer to Sam then he had intended, and he jumped away from it in shock.

He chuckled nervously as he stepped down from the podium, mumbling an awkward apology as he passed Natasha and Clint on his way back to stand beside Bella again. "They're difficult to aim."

Natasha and Clint shared a glance, before looking at the remaining Experiment who had yet to participate in the demonstration. "Heather," Clint pointed to her. "Lucky last, come on, up on the podium."

Heather flicked her hair over her shoulder and folded her arms, quite determinedly rooted to the spot where she stood. "I refuse to take part in this freak show," she spoke flatly, bitterly glaring at both Natasha and Clint. Although at the word freak, she took a particular note of looking pointedly at Phoenix.

Natasha kept an eerie calm to her mannerisms, while Clint was struggling to keep a lid on several snide remarks he wanted to direct towards the girl, particularly in defence to Phoenix. "What we're doing here Heather, is trying to get some sense of what your abilities are, so we can teach you how to correctly use them," Natasha spoke in a factual tone.

Heather debated Natasha's words, and huffed angrily when she discovered that she had no quick retort to what she had said. "I'll use my telekinesis, but I hate getting into people's heads so don't ask me to do that," she snapped. "And don't think I'm getting up on that podium like a show pony. You've seen what I can do already."

Natasha accepted what was Heather's best attempt at a peace offering. Clint turned his back to Heather and murmured to Natasha. "I thought she enjoyed putting herself on display for everyone to see."

Natasha hid a smirk, and looked at the six teenagers laid out in front of her. The Experiments. Natasha sighed and shook her head. Training them was going to be a nightmare.

* * *

><p>For Natasha it had been a spectacularly long and tiring day. Give her thirty armed Arab bandits with a secret payload of dynamite that they were moving to Syria any day, but six dysfunctional teenagers with superpowers? Not exactly a situation Natasha enjoyed.<p>

She nearly sat down in the shower when she turned on the amazingly warm water. One of the best things about the newly christened Avengers Tower was the heating system. She stood with her eyes closed for a minute, letting the water trickle down her back and the steam from the heat fog up the glass around her.

Natasha stood there for a minute, having a rare moment to herself where she could be distracted and relax. That moment ended when she opened her eyes saw the silhouette of a person through the foggy glass, watching her on the other side of the shower door. It didn't take long for Natasha to analyse the person's body shape and identify them.

"Are you going to stand out there and watch, or are you going to come in and join me?" Natasha asked him with a smirk gliding across her face.

As she spoke, she tried her hardest not to turn around and look at him, instead she faced the showerhead and let her face be pelted with the hot water. She heard him enter, and felt him place his hands gently on her hips, pulling her backwards until she felt her skin brush against his.

"You know it's rude to stare at people while they shower," Natasha murmured, teasing him slowly as he nipped at her neck playfully.

"And you know it's rude to have hot, steamy showers without me," he responded, whispering into the crook of her neck. He hands traced lower, past her hips, gently gliding across her bare skin. Natasha placed her hands over his, grabbing them and pulling them upwards, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Clint grabbed her tighter by her waist, turning her around so she faced him, he pushed her up against the glass wall of the shower. He stared at her for a second, smiling as he pushed a strand of wet hair behind her ear. Natasha bit her lip, and cupped his face in her hands, pulling his mouth down until their lips connected.

The kiss became more intense as Clint pressed against Natasha and she slid up the wall. She wrapped her tight legs around the midsection of his body and began kissing him from above, her tongue deepening the kiss. Clint smiled in pleasure behind the kiss, and held Natasha tighter, his fingers digging into the bare skin of her back.

Natasha broke away from his mouth, breathing heavily, she smirked down at him, satisfied to see the pleasured look on his face. She bit her lip and he exhaled a husky breath. "Bedroom," he suggested with a cocky grin and Natasha returned his expression.

"I thought you'd never asked," she slowly traced one finger down his lips and past his chin, travelling further down his chest, teasing him lightly. Slowly, Natasha unclenched her legs and slid down off his body, her feet lightly hitting the ground.

With a swift movement, Natasha turned off the taps that kept the shower running, and grabbed Clint by his hands, physically yanking him out of the shower and pulling him into the bedroom. He stood just before the foot of the bed, and Natasha pressed herself against him, fiercely pressing her lips against his, their tongues travelling deeper into each other's mouths.

Natasha broke away from the kiss, and shoved him onto the bed. Clint fell backwards onto the bed, and laughed and Natasha climbed on top of him and slowly lowered her mouth down towards him. Natasha arched her back as she kissed him again, and then slowly leaned forward, their skin meeting as her body came down on top of his.

Clint lost his patience and didn't want to go slow anymore. He grabbed her hips and pulled her down hard, their bodies pressed against each other. Natasha put her hands on his chest, and while pinning him down she grinned slyly. "We probably shouldn't be doing this right now," she whispered.

"Do you want to stop?" Clint asked letting his hands drop from her hips.

Natasha grabbed his hands and put them back where they had been earlier. "Of course not," she scoffed.

Clint grinned and pulled her back on top of him, so they were completely pressed up against each other, with barely any space to breath. Their bodies moved together naturally, fitting together perfectly as they passionately traced their hands over each other.

A knock on the door slapped them both back into reality with a sudden jolt. Natasha sat up, unaware that she was straddling Clint as she stared at the door with a stony expression. Clint sighed in annoyance. Natasha began slapping his chest as she still stared at the door.

"Get out of sight," she hissed at him. Reluctantly, Clint sighed, rolling off the bed, in the opposite direction to the door, and hit the floor with a 'thump'. Natasha rose to her feet and looked around for something to put over herself.

As Natasha grabbed a towel to wrap around herself, whoever was outside knocked on the floor again. Clint looked up over the top of the bed, curious to see what was happening, but ducked back down again as Natasha moved to open the door.

Tony did a double-take when he saw Natasha wearing nothing but a towel, and it took him a minute before he could form words. "Um," he looked Natasha up and down before shaking his head to force himself back to reality. "I'm looking for the Hawkman, have you seen him anywhere?"

"Not since earlier today," Natasha shook her head and leaned against the door, while keeping one hand holding her towel in place.

Tony fell for the lie far too easily and nodded. "Wonderful. I've looked everywhere for the guy but he's got to be hiding in the vents or something," he sighed, annoyed that he still had yet to find Clint. "If you do see him, please inform Katniss that the new arrows he requested from me are ready to be tested."

"I'll let him know if I see him," Natasha smiled as she watched Tony give her one last up and down looked before he walked away, and closed the door very quickly once she was satisfied he had moved far enough away.

Natasha threw the towel across the room as she turned around to look at Clint, who had laid himself out on the bed, waiting for Natasha to finish her conversation. They stared at each other for a while, until they both began laughing.

* * *

><p>It was a cold night, a light wind was rustling the trees on the edges of a dark clearing. Empty, at least until a sound like a blasting rush of air pierced the silence of the night. A man appeared in the clearing, seeming to be a dark spirit that had come to life from the darkness.<p>

The man appeared, leaning forward on one knee, head bent towards the ground. Slowly he looked up, observing his surroundings with a dangerous glint in his eyes. The man rose to his feet, dark hair falling in his face. He wielded a golden sceptre in his hands, which rose to a height taller than him, and glinted in the light of the moon.

Loki observed his surroundings. "Earth," he grinned devilishly. "How good to be back."


	6. The Song

**A/N: Hey there my lovelies, glad to see you here. I took my sweet ass time with this chapter, but Christmas took up so much of my time. I actually meant to publish this on Christmas Day as a Christmas present for you guys but I didn't finish in time. Oh well here it is now, so Happy Christmas guys. A lot about Phoenix in this chapter, hence the reason why I used the song, The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy in this chapter. Listen to it while you're reading, it's awesome. As always beautiful readers, don't forget to read, review and enjoy.**

* * *

><p>Mark was a very competitive person. He did not like being beaten. So getting hit with that arrow yesterday was a real blow to his self-esteem. Although Clint Barton was Hawkeye, and an Avenger, as well as being an awesome spy and champion marksman. It still hurt.<p>

Yesterday's humiliation was what drove him to the idiocy of waking up, literally before every single thing on the planet woke up, and making his way downstairs via the elevator to work on his fitness and whatnot. It was a dumbass idea and Mark knew it.

_Put on your war paint!_

As the lift opened onto the training centre Mark was suddenly hit by a loud blast of music that was playing from the training room speakers. Someone was already training, and whoever it was had the speakers turned up so loud to the point where the whole room was pounding.

_You are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down,  
>Strike a match and I'll burn you to the ground<em>

His eyes came across a person stood in the middle of the training room, back to him and working away hard at a punching bag. From where Mark had stepped out of the elevator, he could see the person clearly and managed to pick out their features. Red hair, pale skin, for a second he thought it was the Black Widow, until he realised that her hair was far too ginger in colour to be the Black Widow.

_You know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start  
>So dance alone to the beat of your heart<em>

Fear overtook him inside of a second; he could feel the blood pumping to his head as his mouth dropped open slightly. His first instinct was to run, run as fast as he could in the opposite direction. He couldn't move, was frozen to the spot.

_You're wearing our vintage misery  
>No, I think it looked a little better on me<em>

Phoenix.

_Bring home the boys and scrap scrap metal the tanks  
>Get hitched and make a career out of robbing banks<em>

Phoenix was terrifying to put it simply. It wasn't exactly her fault, it's not like she wanted to be raised as a psychopath and trained to kill people. But Heather was right; she was a monster. Mark could remember Navy Pier in perfect detail. It was the worst day of his life. Seeing Phoenix for the first time was like being tied to train tracks and watching the train come directly towards you, knowing there was nothing you could do to escape.

_So we can take the world back from the heart-attacked  
>One maniac at a time we will take it back<em>

Phoenix delivered each punch, kick and hit in time with the beat of the music, moving swiftly as she beat the crap out of the bag. She worked at it like nothing else in the world mattered. Curiosity played him like a fiddle as he felt himself moving towards her instead of running away.

_Hey young blood  
>Doesn't it feel like our time is running out?<em>

Slowly he moved in a circle, making his way around the room, keeping it so she could not see him, but put himself into a position where he could look at her face. She attacked the punching bag like it was her worst enemy, with a clear set determination in her expression. She'd clearly been working hard for a while now because beads of sweat were already covering her face.

_The war is won,  
>before it's begun.<br>Release the doves,  
>surrender love.<em>

Although she was mostly focused on her roundhouse kicks and punches, Phoenix was listening carefully to the music she was playing. Each time she hit the punching bag, it was exactly in time with the beat of the music, she was nodding her head and mouthing the words to the song.

_I'm gonna change you, like a remix,  
>and I'll raise you, like a Phoenix<em>

This didn't help Mark's feeling of curiosity. He wanted to get closer, stand in front of her so he could watch all of her movements in intricate detail. It was almost like he was seeing her for the first time, not the menacing presence that had dragged him away from his normal life.

_Put on your war paint!_

The song ended as Phoenix stepped and kicked the bag directly in its centre with such a force that it swung dangerously on the chain it hung from. She steadied it before it could swing back and hit her, looking down over her right shoulder as she did so, eyes moving upwards from the ground until she saw Mark.

He froze where he stood, tried desperately to analyse her blank expression for any signs of anger. She didn't look surprised, didn't even blink. "You're not very subtle," she told him calmly, untying the black ribbons from her hands that had been used to protect her knuckles from injury. "I knew you were there the minute you stepped out of the elevator."

Mark's mouth opened and closed, he could only assume he resembled a stunned fish at that moment. Phoenix turned away from him and grabbed a gym bag she had nearby, her shoulders dropping dramatically as she sighed. Mark's shock vanished in a wave and instead that annoying curiosity overtook him again.

She obviously heard him shifting behind her, so Phoenix turned around to face him. More curiosity hit him like a gunshot as he watched her avoid his eyes, a defeated look on her face. "I'll leave. I doubt you want me anywhere near you." Her tone of voice wasn't even sarcastic or bitter, she sounded sad more than anything else.

Phoenix moved to walk past him towards the elevator, he had no idea what mad idea that occurred to him in that split second made him do it. "Wait!" Mark reached out a grabbed Phoenix's forearm, preventing her from walking away. This was a bad idea for obvious reasons, but Mark didn't realise it until their skin made contact and she flinched so severely it was like he had just shot her with a Taser.

He released her very quickly and took a major step backwards. Phoenix's entire body had frozen up and she was staring at her arm where Mark had grabbed her, glancing upwards at him after a second with a stunned and suspicious look on her face.

"I'm really sorry," Mark apologised hurriedly.

He looked at her, but he concentrated, taking in all her features, it felt like he was seeing her for the first time. Phoenix looked different after two months, now she didn't look sickly pale, just normal pale. Her red hair was tied off her face in a ponytail but a few strands had come loose and stuck to the sweat on her face. She didn't look sick anymore.

The one thing that stood out to him in particular were her eyes, they were blue as always, but it was the dark crescents under her eyes that he focused on, they weren't you're average 'stayed up to late studying' dark eyes. They screamed at Mark that Phoenix hadn't had a good night's sleep in days.

"Why are you up so early?" he inquired, although he already suspected what her answer would be. "It's like 4:30 in the morning, and you look like you've been down here for hours already. Seriously are you ok?"

Phoenix titled her head to the side and scoffed, shaking her head slightly. "I'm fine."

Mark wasn't stupid, he knew that whenever a girl said she was fine she was practically always lying. That, and Phoenix's appearance and attitude were obvious indicators that she was completely lying to him. Although the way she looked at him was clear that she didn't want to talk about whatever was troubling her. Not that he cared.

It was like a wave of realisation came down on him like an aggravated tsunami. He was associating with the enemy, Heather had warned them that Phoenix would try and get into their heads so she could manipulate them into following her. Mark was supposed to hate Phoenix, after all she was a monster, just like Heather told them. They all knew that, and couldn't afford to forget it.

Another thought sneaked into his mind, operating on the other side of the argument. The way she talked, the way she acted, it wasn't the behaviour of something who was trying to manipulate them. It was the behaviour of another personality entirely, someone who had been hurt, someone who was feeling pain. No way in hell was Phoenix anywhere close to fine.

"You don't need to leave because of me," Mark attempted a half-smile. "I'm fine with sharing, it's a big training room."

Again Phoenix titled her head to the side, except this time it was because she was confused. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something, then decided against it and closed her mouth. Finally she decided what she was going to say. "But you made it very clear that you don't want anything to do with me."

Mark shrugged, attempted a joke. "I don't like to be beaten, maybe if I practise some more I might be able to knock Hawkeye on his ass for a change."

The joke sailed over Phoenix's head like a projectile missile with no concept of aiming. "It will take you many years of training before you can match Clint's level of fighting. He is many years of training ahead of you experience-wise."

Sighing deeply, Mark eyed the ceiling and muttered a few choice words. Turning to Phoenix, he motioned to the room around them. "Well then why don't you show me some of your moves?" he suggested hopefully. "You seem to be pretty good at fighting, so there's a good place to start."

Phoenix stared at him, blank faced. She continued to remain silent, staring at him like he had just told her something completely shocking ad unbelievable. It got creepy after about a minute of complete and utter silence.

"I'm not speaking Mandarin am I?" Mark asked sarcastically.

Phoenix ignored him. "You want me to help you," she said to herself as she looked to the ground and she scratched at her chin, almost like it was a completely unbelievable statement.

"I'm pretty sure that's what I said yeah," Mark nodded, biting his lip thoughtfully as Phoenix ran the scenario through her head while she continued to stare at him. "A simple yes or no answer would be helpful, I'm not Heather, I can't read your mind."

"Ok," she agreed, her stunned expression disappearing off her face as quickly as it had washed over her in the first place. Phoenix became all business as she seemed to realise that training was an area of her expertise. "You're strong in your lower body because of your running, but not so much in your upper body. I wanna see how you throw punches, plus I've got the bag set up anyway."

Mark nodded eagerly and began walking towards the punching bag with his fists raised. "Hey can you put on Eye of the Tiger, I wanna Rocky this bitch." Although Mark had never actually seen the movie Rocky, he did have a vague idea of what a boxing montage might look like.

"Before we start we need to go over a few things first," Phoenix stepped in front of him. She was finding his behaviour extremely strange, but was unsure of whether or not it was classified as ordinary behaviour, and therefore did not address Mark on the matter. "

She raised her hands, moving to put them on his shoulders, but hesitated. "Um, can I?"

"Uh," Mark stammered as he made eye contact with Phoenix. "Yeah go right ahead."

Putting her hands on his shoulder, she gently pushed him backwards and away from the punching bag. Phoenix proceeded to position him so he was in the correct ready stance. "Hold your fists up to your chin like this, and keep your elbows close to your waist," Phoenix instructed as she demonstrated. "Now show me a punch."

"What do you want me to punch? The air?"

"Just show me how you punch."

Mark swung his right arm back and then thrust his fist forward, demonstrating his punch to Phoenix, who watched his movements closely. She held up a hand when he made a move like he was going to punch again. Looking at Mark like he had just done something unbelievably stupid, Phoenix shook her head.

She hesitated before giving him feedback, worried he may react negatively. "You're not punching correctly." She stood beside him, and made direct eye contact. "If you punch your enemy in the face like that, you'll probably end up doing more damage to yourself than your opponent,"

"So how do I avoid damaging myself?" he asked, looking at Phoenix out of the corner of his eyes with a sly grin.

Phoenix raised her fists in front of her, resting them just underneath her chin. "You're punching flat on your knuckles, which is putting most of the force on your two smaller knuckles. You need to angle your punch, so you're hitting with your two larger knuckles. Putting too much pressure on your smaller knuckles means you'll probably end up breaking your hand."

"Got it, big knuckles first," Mark nodded, listening to Phoenix's instructions and watching her intently.

Phoenix grabbed Mark's forearm and gently guided it in the direction he was supposed to throw his punch. "Make sure you don't bend your elbows because that can cause jarring," she put a hand on his bent elbow and righted it. "As you punch, thrust your shoulder and hip. Don't forget to take a small step off your front foot."

"Elbows straight, thrust, and step," Mark ran through the steps in his head, smiling at Phoenix. "Yeah I think I got it."

Phoenix slowly demonstrated the technique once more, running through the steps as she did so. "This is one of the simpler punches, and it's called a Jab. You throw the punch with your lead hand," she informed him, stepping back and putting her hands on her hips.

"Uh what hand?"

"Your lead hand," Phoenix repeated herself. "Are you right-handed or left-handed?"

"Left," Mark mumbled in response, embarrassed that he actually had to answer this question within days of his residency at Stark Tower.

"Then your lead hand would be your right hand. It's the hand opposite to the one you write with."

Mark held his right arm up, looked it up and down, and twisted his wrist, looking at his hand while processing the new information. He shrugged, and made a move to walk closer to the bag. Phoenix stopped him yet again, pressing a hand against his chest.

Wordlessly, she held up two strings of white ribbon and grabbed Mark's right hand. He tried to say something as she laid his palms out flat and began wrapping one strand of the ribbon around his hand. However he came closer to making a sound that sounded a lot like a long, drawn out, "Um."

A smile tugged at the edge of Phoenix's lips as she continued to tie the ribbon around his hands, covering the knuckles. She did the same with his other hand, and when finished, picked up a pair of large, red, boxing gloves that had been conveniently sitting at the ground by Phoenix's feet.

"Go for it," she nodded towards the punching bag.

Mark eagerly stepped up to the punching bag, managing to contain his excitement for about a second, before he began to bop up and down on the balls of his feet. He kept his fists up, underneath his chin, but moved them around, his fists moved up and down, forwards and backwards. He seemed to be acting like a wrestler would, to hype himself up for a coming fight.

Mark lunged forward on his right foot with a battle cry, throwing his right arm forward with a determined and ferocious strike. His fists connected with the bag, and he stopped, still stuck in the position with his fist against the bag, and left arm still curled into a fist underneath his chin.

Mark's mouth dropped open, and a horrible trembling noise emerged. "Ow," he winced quietly.

Phoenix ran to his side as his fist slid down from the punching bag as he fell onto his knees and laid himself down on the ground. Phoenix seemed worried as she removed the glove and inspected Mark's hand to assess the damage.

Leaning forward she held Mark's hand in her own and using her thumb, rubbed against the knuckles on his hand, gently, but with enough force to check that his bones were still intact. Sighing, in what seemed like relief, she stood up, looking down on Mark with her hands on her hips.

"Big knuckles first," Mark attempted a joke, to which Phoenix responded with an annoyed scoff.

"One of the most key points when it comes to any punch," Phoenix shook her head, mouth tightened like she has just sucked about three lemons. "You did exactly the opposite of what I told you to. You could've seriously hurt yourself you know."

"You told me to angle my fist, and not punch flat," Mark argued, sitting up from his position on the ground he threw his arms out and angled his palms out towards the sky. "I think you'll find I did in fact obey your orders Captain Crunch."

Phoenix shook her head, but lent forward, hand outstretched to help Mark to his feet. As she pulled him to his feet, she began her lecture. "I told you to angle your punch so you would be putting less pressure on your smaller knuckles. Instead you angled them the wrong way, and put _more_ pressure on your smaller knuckles."

Shrugging dismissively, Mark spoke. "Well you weren't exactly clear in your instructions were you?"

Phoenix gave him a flat look as she picked up the boxing gloves from the ground. "My instructions were perfectly clear," she snapped bitterly. A second of silence passed, before Phoenix threw the glove, which hit Mark in the face. "Again. Try not to hurt yourself this time."

Mark looked Phoenix up and down. He wasn't sure why, why all of a sudden he decided that Phoenix was no longer a threat. All he knew was that any fear he had for her had someone how completely vanished, and everything he could remember Heather saying, he knew was a flat out lie.

He smiled at her, thinking only about putting away some of the curiosity bubbling inside of him. "Since when do you care?" he asked her, looking at her sideways as put on the boxing glove and tied the strap around his wrist.

"I've always cared," Phoenix murmured under her breath, and refused to look at Mark, but he heard her loud and clear regardless. He stared at her, no longer smiling, but his gaze was not filled with hatred. Mark looked at Phoenix, a stare of pleasant surprise was spread across his face, and he made no attempt to hide it.

Phoenix looked at him, seeing the expression in his eyes and turned away quickly. She cleared her throat before speaking, "Again," she repeated her earlier command, but with a softer tone of voice than she had used previously. "When you've done enough Jabs properly, I'll show you how to do Crosses."

Mark nodded and remembering everything Phoenix had told him, he stepped up to the punching bag and practised his Jabs, delivering each punch more fluidly than the one before it. As promised, Phoenix showed him how to do Crosses after a minute or two. Mark found it easier once he had learnt both techniques, and optimised both hands when delivering hits to the bag.

As he continued working at the bag, what he was doing became muscle memory, and no longer had to think about what he was going to do before he delivered each punch, it came to him easily. While continuing his workout, he became involved in an intense internal debate.

Heather had been wrong, Phoenix wasn't all that bad, and she certainly wasn't trying to manipulate them. However Heather was more or less the unofficially nominated leader of The Experiments, usually it fell to her to speak for the group. She was the most opinionated about the issue of Phoenix, and there was no chance of her forgiving Phoenix for her actions, or accepting that she wasn't the monster that Heather thought she was.

If Mark suddenly went to his only four friends in the entire world, the only people who understood, and told them about Phoenix suddenly developing into a decent human being, they wouldn't believe him. He couldn't afford to lose them, he couldn't stand being cast aside, not again. Phoenix wasn't exactly 'friend' material, and Mark wouldn't be able to stand having her as the only person he could talk to.

Mark made a decision, a choice that sprouted a horrible sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, he knew he would regret it, but he was not going to be the reject. For another half hour, Mark used the horrid feeling of regret as an energy source, working it off by attacking the punching bag in front of him.

He kept at it, and after a while felt the strain developing in his upper arms, within another ten minutes it spread to the rest of his body and he felt himself burning all over. It took mental willpower he didn't even know he had, just to lift one arm and hit the bag.

Phoenix saw Mark struggling and held a hand up for him to stop. "You need a break?" She asked.

He managed to make sounds that resembled a wheezy yes. He took one step towards the benches at the edge of the gym, and that was enough. His knees gave way and he toppled forward, something may well have just grabbed him by his ankles and pulled because there wasn't even any hesitation as he hit the ground.

Phoenix saw him fall and paused for a minute as Mark tried to pull himself up. She realised that he had been completely drained of strength and offered a hand. She pulled him to his feet in a swift motion and placed one of his arms around her shoulders and put her arm around his midsection, aiding him in his failed attempt to walk.

"You should've told me you were struggling," oddly enough Phoenix's tone of voice wasn't scolding, she sounded more concerned than anything else. Except Mark had never seen any emotion closely regarding concern present in Phoenix before. So maybe it was just his exhausted mind playing tricks on him.

"I thought that if I tried to walk away you might punch me in the face," he wheezed out an answer and decided to be honest instead of making something up. Phoenix would probably be able to tell if he was lying.

He felt Phoenix hesitate beside him and suddenly hoped that she wouldn't hit him in the face for that answer. "I wouldn't..." She stopped herself mid-sentence and changed her approach. "I'm trying to help you improve, not push you so hard that you collapse."

Mark was at a loss for a witty remark to those words. That same tone of voice she had used earlier was present again. Was Phoenix actually concerned for him? The common belief was that Phoenix didn't understand normal human emotions. So what the hell was this then?

They reached the benches at the edge of the training room and Mark threw himself down into a sitting position and very eagerly accepted the drink bottle handed to him from Phoenix. She sat down next to him, but at a distance away from him as well. There was about a metre of space between them on the seat.

Mark watched Phoenix as he downed the water. She examined her fingernails, obviously with nothing else to do while she waited for Mark. He noticed that a couple of her fingernails were broken, a few of them were scratched as well. However he noticed something else as he observed her hands.

Her fingers curved at almost unnoticeable angles, a couple of them pointed left or right when they shouldn't have, mostly they were curved at the tips of her fingers where the final joints were. Mark looked down at his own hands, and it was like looking in a mirror.

"Your fingers have been broken before," Mark put the water bottle down beside him and leaned forward, elbows on his upper legs and hands clasped in front of him. He turned his head to look Phoenix in the face, and slid down the bench, closer to her. "But they were never set properly."

Phoenix looked at her fingers and closing her eyes, she nodded one before opening them again. "Most of them are from when I were younger," she held her hands out in front of her as she talked, while focusing her eyes on her hands, it was obvious that she was addressing Mark. "They could've been set properly of course, but they were left like this as a reminder."

Phoenix left her explanation with no finish, and the sentence felt like she had cut off the tail of it, never actually reaching the point of her discussion. The dead silence felt like a knife hanging over his head, so Mark opened his mouth to speak. "A reminder of what?" he asked quietly, and attempted to make eye contact.

Phoenix did not look at him, and continued to stare at her fingers. She didn't seem like she was going to answer, until she let her arms drop to her side and turned away from Mark. "A reminder not to disobey," she answered, talking clearly amidst the grated edge to her voice.

Mark really should've turned around and walked away, but he didn't. He slid further down the seat until he was sitting right next to Phoenix, their legs nearly touching. Phoenix realised he had moved closer and turned around to finally look him in the eye.

They maintained contact for what felt like a minute but was really just several seconds. Mark held his hand up out in front of the both of them. "My hands are the same," he told her. "They're not right, and they bend at awkward angles, but that's not why I feel like shit when I look at them."

Phoenix spent a long time looking at his hand, but kept stealing glances at him from the corner of her eye. She seemed to have a vague sense of what Mark was about to tell her, and didn't look surprised when he finally broke through the silence.

"Every time I look at my hands, and think about how messed up my fingers look," he used his other hand to point a trembling finger at his hand to enunciate what he was saying. "Every time I look at them, all I see is the hammer coming down on me, and all I hear are the screams."

Phoenix rabidly began blinking her eyes, and nodded slowly. When she realised that she was too close to Mark than she was comfortable, she slid away from him, and shrunk her neck into her shoulders. Mark waited until she straightened up and took a deep breath.

Before he could say something to her, an apology or anything really, she spoke first. "People are going to be awake soon I should probably go back to my room," her voice was monotone and emotionless, almost robotic.

"Yeah, probably a good idea," Mark rubbed the back of his neck, hesitant on how he was supposed to tell her what he wanted to say. "Listen Phoenix, I don't think it's such a good idea if we…"

"Talk to each other," Phoenix finished his sentence for him, and when he looked away from her, physically unable to look him in the eye, Phoenix nodded, a small, painful, smile moved across her lips. "I understand. You don't want them to treat you like they treat me."

"Phoenix I don't mean it like that," Mark felt terrible, the sick feeling he had tried so hard to expel returned, twice as worse as it had been before. Phoenix murmured that it was ok as moved further away from him down the seat, and the sick feeling bubbled into an ache of self-hatred.

"Those kids are just walking stereotypes Phoenix, they don't mean all that much, and they're not as special as they think they are," Mark was fuming as he bitterly spat the words, realising some of his anger as he ranted. "Bella is nothing more than a sweet little la-di-da artsy girl who uses shyness to hide her viciousness. Sam is a walking boulder who does more punching than he does speaking, and does more speaking than he does independent thinking. Josh is just a jerk with a Napoléon complex and Heather is a Queen Bee who isn't satisfied unless she has a group of ditzy minions catering to her every cruel whim, and makes other people feel like crap just so she can feel a little bit better about her own disgusting self."

"But they're more or less your only friends," Phoenix didn't even skip a beat between Mark's angry rant, and talked straight away, perfectly summing it up into one sentence. "And you don't want to jeopardize that." Phoenix rose to her feet, nodding in perfect understanding.

Mark leapt to his feet as well, and stood in front of her before she had a chance to walk away. "I wanna do this again," he told her hurriedly. "This practise thing, it's good, I kind of actually enjoyed it a bit. We'd have to do it in secret though."

"Of course," Phoenix agreed immediately. "We'd have to do it when no one would catch us. Do you wanna meet here at the same time tomorrow?"

"I'd rather not, I'm not usually functional until about 10 in the morning."

"11PM tomorrow night then?"

"Perfect."

Phoenix nodded eagerly, and the both of them shared a brief smile, stood in front of each other in the large empty space of the gymnasium. They broke away from each other's gaze when a blaring alarm erupted from all around them, sounding a lot like a danger warning.

"The intruder alarm!" Phoenix exclaimed as she looked around her, panicked. "Natasha. Clint." She reached out and grabbed Mark's hands. "Take the elevator upstairs and gather all The Experiments together. Tell them that there's an intruder and make sure you stay together."

Phoenix let go of his hands and sped off towards a door located small distance away from the elevator. "What about you?" Mark shouted after her.

"I'm taking the stairwell to go find everyone else!" she shouted back to him as her hand grabbed the doorknob and yanked the door open. Phoenix looked back at Mark, still stood in the same spot. "Go! Find the Experiments and keep them safe!"

He nodded, and used his speed to reach the elevator door in a second, while Phoenix began racing up the stairs. There was an intruder in the Tower, and Phoenix had to find Natasha and Clint.


End file.
